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HISTORY 



OF 



Du Page County. 



ILLINOIS. 



4B BY BUFUS BL.A.ISrOHIJLi^ID. 



ILLUSTRATED. 



CHICAGO: 

O. L. BASKIN & CO... HISTORICAL PUBLISHERS, 

Lakeside Building. 
1882. 






PREFACE. 



A FTER several months of laborious research and persistent toil, the history of Du Page 
County is complete, and it is our hope and belief that no subject of general importance or 
interest has been overlooked or omitted, and even minor tacts, when of sufficient note to be 
worthy of record, have been faithfully chronicled. In short, where protracted investigation 
promised results commensurate with the undertaking, matters not only of undoubted record, 
but legendary lore, have been brought into requisition. We are well aware of the fact that it is 
next to impossible to furnish a perfect history from the meager resources at the command of the 
historian under ordinary circumstances, but claim to have prepared a work fully up to the 
standard of our engagements. Through the courtesy and assistance generously afforded by the 
residents of Du Page, we have been enabled to trace out and put into systematic shape, the 
greater portions of the events that have transpired in the county up to the present time, and we 
feel assured that all thoughtful persons interested in the matter will recognize and appreciate 
the importance of the work and its permanent value. A dry statement of facts has been 
avoided, so far as it was possible to do so, and anecdote and incident have been interwoven with 
plain recital and statistics, thereby forming a narrative at once instructive and entertaining. 

To the many friends who have contributed special portions of the matter herein contained, 
and to those who have assisted Mr. Blanchard with dates and other memoranda, our thanks 
are due, and we trust thai the earnest endeavors that we have exercised to present our patrons 
with a work worthy in all respects will, in part, repay them for their kindness. 

November. 1882. 0. L. BASKIN & CO. 

... ■ 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

HISTORICAL. page. 

CHAPTER 1.— Du Page a Spanish Possession— The French Take 
Possession of the Northwest — The Country Comes Under 
English Rule — George Rogers Clarke—Territorial Subdi- 
visions — First Conveyance of Land in Du Page County — 
The Pottawatomies — Great American Treaty of 1833— 
The Chicagou Portage — The Removal of the Indians — 
Their Present Condition — Origin of the name Du Page- 
Spanish Conquest and Its Aims — Baron de Carondelet — 
\ I The Spanish Close the Lower Mississippi — County Organ- 
ization and Subdivision — Northern Limits of Illinois — 
The French Traders — Act Organizing Du Page County .. 11 

CHAPTER II.— The Pioneer— Stephen J Scott— The Scott Set- 
tlement — Blodgett Hauley — Bailey Hobson, the First Set- 
tlor of Du Page County — Building the First Cabin — i . 
ing a Slough — Williard Scott — Social Entertainments — 
Corn Pancakes — The Napers — First Ground Plowed — The 
First School — Joseph Naper — John Naper — The First 
Stove— Christopher Paine— The First Saw-Mill— Home- 
made Spinning Wheels and Looms — Cold Winter of 1830- 
31 — Portage to Chicago — The Lawtons — The Pottawato- 
mies — Flight to Fort Dearborn — Horrible Massacre at 
Indian Crt-ek— Exploits of Col. Beaubien 25 

CHAPTER III.— Capt. Paine arrives at the Naper Settlement 
— Fort Paine Built — Jumes Brown Shot by the Indians — 
Expedition to Half Day's Village — Maj. William Whistler 
Arrives at Fort Dearborn — ('apt. Paint's Company Return 
to Danville — Gen. Scott arrives at Chicago—The Cholera 
—Gen. Scott Encamps on the Desplaines— Gen. Scott at 
Fort Paine — Gen. Scott's Army at Rock Island — John K. 
Clark — Black Hawk Sent to Fortress Monroe — His Death 
— Poll-Lists — The Pre-emption House — Claimants — The 
Prairie Schooner— The First Grist-Mill — Fowler's Grap- 
ple with the Wolf— The Pioneer of Pioneers — Early 
Preachers 42 

CHAPTER IV — Public Land Surveys— The Land Claim Sys- 
tem — Necessity for the Higher Law — The Big Woods 
Claim Protecting Society — The Land Pirate Company — 
Land Speculators— Indian Burying Grounds — The Fox 
River Country — Method of Grinding Corn — Indian Vil- 
lages—Indian Agriculture — Indian Modes of Travel — 
The Country North, East and South of the Du Page Set- 
tlements— The Du Page County Society for Mutual Pro- 
tection — The Hognatorial Council 55 



CHAPTER V.— First Introduction of Slavery into th. I 

of Virginia — First Anti-Slaver; Literature — Southern 
Origin of Anti-Slavery Societies— Action of th.- Quakers 
— "The Genius of Universal Emancipation " — Early Abo- 
litionists—The Old Federal Party— Origin of the Den 
crntic and Whig Parties — Origin of the Republican Party 
— Gov. Coles — Elihu B. Washburne — Stephen A. Douglas 
—Abraham Lincoln — The Western Citizen Introduces 
Abolitionism into Chicago — Its Effect— Illinois the First 
State to Take Political Action in the Abolition Movement 
— John Brown — Fort Sumter 68 

CHAPTER VI.— Record of Du Page County in the War of th* 

Rebellion 90 

CHAPTER VII.— The First Election— County Commissioners' 
Court— The County Line Surveyed — The County Divided 
into Precincts — Townships Organized — List of County 
and Town Officers— Valuation of Taxable Property — The 
First Grand Jury— Public Schools— The Old Stage Coach 
—Railroads — Removal of the County Seat — The County 
Fair— Geology of the County 139 

CHAPTER VIII.— Milton Township — Its First Settlors — 
Wheaton — How It Received Its Name — The Galena A 
Chicago Union Railroad — Churches uf Wheaton — Pi. »- 
neer School — Stacy's Corners — Babcock Grove — Prospect 
Park— Its Churches, , 163 

CHAPTER IX— Downer's Grove Township— The Old Indian 
Boundary — Cass — Pierce Downer — Thomas And r us— 
Chicago Reminiscences — The Village of Hinsdale — Brush 
Hill Memories — Clarendou Hills — Fredericksburg — 
Downer's Grove Village — An Ox Toim Hitched to an 
Oak Log— What Grew Out of It— The Underground Rail- 
road 194 

CHAPTER X— Naporville Township— List of Early Settlers— 
Village of Naperville— Churches— Schools— Manufacto- 
ries— The Northwestern College — Temperance Move- 
ments — Newspapers— Fire Department — Military Com- 
pany—Nurseries—The Lodges— Bank— Stone Quarry 212 

CHAPTER XL— Lisle To wnship— The First Settler— His Hardi- 
hood—Thanksgiving—A Female Pow-wow — The Old Grist 

Mill — The Chronic Pioneer — nis Generosity 240 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

CHAPTER XII.— York Township— Origin of Its Name— Its 
Early Settlers — The Deeplaines BrMged — Sunday Service 
on Slab Seats — The Pioneer School Mistress — The Widow- 
er's Cabin — Praying Watches — Suicide — Bursting Forth 
of a Spring — Elnihurst — German Evangelical Seminary — 
Lombard 246 

CHAPTER XIII.— Winfield Township— Warrenville— Water 
Cresses — Their Consequences — Newcomers and Distant 
Neighbors — Parties and Raisings — Railsplitting — Fourth 
of July— The Schoolgirl's Handkerchief— The Old Saw- 
Mill— The Hotel and Dancing Hall— What was in a Trunk 
<if Old Papers — Churches — The Warrenville Academy — 
I in y's Mills — Methodist Church at the Place — A Sbylock 
Member Excommunicated— Winfield — Turner Junction 
—John B.Turner 255 

CHAPTER XIV.— Wayin- Township— Pioneer Life of Its Set- 
tlers — Corner on Whisky and Its Result — Indian Burial 
— Indian Importunity — Wolves on the Rampage — Going 
to Mill — Father Kimball — Pioneer School — Gimletville — 
Its Hopes Dashed to the Ground — Hillocks, Spas and 
Rivulets — Wayne Station — Relics of the Stone Age 268 

CHAPTER XV.— Bloomingdale Towuthip— Indian Burying- 
Grounds — The Meachams — Pioneer Burials — Early Road 
Districts — Scene in a Sunday Service — Tragical Termi- 
nation of a Law Suit — School Districts — Petrifaclions — 
Bloomingdale Village — Churches — Business Men of 
Bloomingdale — Roselle — Its Business Men — Moacham — 
Strange Phenomenon on Kclley's Farm 274 

CHAPTER XVI —Addison Township— The Mountain Daisy- 
Indian Encampment — The Army Trail — The Soldier's 
Grave — The Log Cabin — Home Talent — The German 
Vanguard — The Pioneer Tavern — The Old Galena Trade 
— Salt Creek — Francis Hoffman , a Lay Preacher — The 
Village of Addison — The German Evangelical Teachers' 
Seminary — The Orphan Asylum — Professional and Busi- 
ness Men of Addison — Itasca — Its Business Man — Lester's 
— Benson ville — Schools 284 



PART II. 

BIOGRAPHICAL. pagf. 

Naperville Township 3 

Milton Township 46 

Downer's Grove Township 77 

Lisle Township 130 

York Township 153 

Winfield Township 17! 

Wayne Township 195 

Bloomingdale Township 214 

Addison Towuship 227 



PORTRAITS. 

Alhro, Ira.; 17 

Bates, Gerry 89 

Bates, Frederick H ♦ 117 

Benjamin, R Y 279 

Blanchard, Walter 99 

Carr, John 107 

Curtiss, Samuel , 36 

Fischer, Henry D 135 

Graue, Frederick 243 

Graue, Deidrick 261 

Greene, Daniel M 53 

Middaugh, H. C 125 

Patrick, W. K 153 

Bobbins, W 81 

Scott, Willard 225 

Smith, John 143 

Struckmann, Deidiieh 63 

Thatcher, A. T 45 

Walker, James B 27 

Warne, John 189 

Warne, Sarah 207 

Wheaton, J. C, Sr 171 

Wiant, Joel 71 



PART I. 



History of Du Page County, 



CHAPTER I. 



DU PAGE A SPANISH POSSESSION— THE FRENCH TAKE POSSESSION OF THE NORTHWEST— THE 
COUNTRY COMES UNDER ENGLISH RULE — GEORGE ROGERS CLARK— TERRITORIAL SUBDI- 
VISIONS—FIRST CONVEYANCE OF LAND IN DU PAGE COUNTY— THE POTTAW ATOMIES 
—GREAT AMERICAN TREATY OF 1833— THE CHICAGOU PORTAGE— THE REMOVAL 
OF THE INDIANS— THEIR PRESENT CONDITION— ORIGIN OF THE NAME 
DU PAGE— SPANISH CONQUEST AND ITS AIMS— BARON DE CARON- 
DELET — THE SPANISH CLOSE THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI- 
COUNTY ORGANIZATION AND SUBDIVISION— NORTHERN 
LIMITS OF ILLINOIS— THE FRENCH TRADERS— Ai'T 
ORGANIZING DU PAKE COUNTY. 



THE history of the world has a grandeur, 
like a distant landscape — too far away for 
the eye to take in its infinite detail — such as 
the delicate tracery of plant life or the stub- 
born structures of rock formations which make 
it up. 

But the history of our age, and especially 
our own locality, comes home to us personally. 
Commonplace as it may seem to us now, in 
the distant future, it will help to make up a 
whole; deepening in interest as time chops off 
the centuries, one after another. All great 
men must have a constituency, but little if 
any inferior to themselves in intellect, and it 
is the actions and deeds of the citizen which 
speak through some representative whose 
talent for becoming their advocate has given 
him a famejustly to be shared by his cotem- 



poraries, and of these, county history is to 
speak. They constitute the delicate tracery 
and details of the historic landscape destined 
some clay to be as grand as it is distant. 

We propose to give a history of Du Page 
County from the earliest records pertaining to 
it, to the present time. 

Not long ago, comparatively, as to the world's 
chronology, but primitively as to our history, 
this county was lost for want of a suit of 
clothes, nor was it but a small part of the loss 
for such default. The circumstances are these: 
When Columbus was casting about from king 
to king in Europe to obtain patronage where- 
with to pursue his plans of discovery, he had 
dispatched his brother Bartholomew to the 
court of Henry Vllth of England to beg his 
royal favor and material aid. On his way 



12 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



thither, he was taken by pirates, and during 
his captivit}' was robbed of all his valuables, 
including his pretty suit of clothes with which 
he was to be attired when he made his humble 
petition to the king, and after finally reaching 
England he was obliged by the labor of his hands 
to earn another suit in which to appear before 
him ere his mission could be executed. At 
last this was done, and he gained the king's 
ear, who listened to his proposals with favor, 
but alas for courtly etiquette ! — while Bar- 
tholomew was at work earning money to pay 
his tailor's bill, Queen Isabella, of Spain, had 
fitted out Columbus, and Henry's hopes were 
dashed to the ground. Not the last time that 
the impulses of a woman have circumvented the 
mature but tardy plans and ambitions of man. 

Du Page County is but an infinitesimal part 
of the New World which Columbus promised 
to give to the king who should fit him out and 
which, as far as such a title could go, fell into 
the hands of Spain by right of priority of dis- 
covery, a precarious title as the sequel proved, 
but nevertheless an honor which England will 
regret the loss of, till Macauley's New Zealander 
shall sketch the ruins of St. Paul. 

Beginning with this pretentious right of 
Spain to the soil of Du Page County, let us 
trace the National claims to it, till private 
claims began to be granted to actual settlers. 
The Spanish claim vanished out of existence 
as other nations began to take possession of 
parts of the New World, for occupation based 
on priority of discovery soon began to trans- 
cend any decree not sustained by the sword. 

The French found their way up the St. Law- 
rence River as early as 1534, settled Quebec 
in 1608, and under Father Alouez took nation- 
al possession of the Great Northwest on the 
I4th of June, 1671, at the falls of Ste. Marie 
(the outlet of Lake Superior). Courcelles 
was then Governor of Canada, and the entire 
country along the lakes through the latter was 
an unknown quantity. Frontenac was Gov- 



ernor from 1672 to 1682, during whose admin- 
istration Marquette and Joliet discovered the 
Mississippi River in 1673, and on their return 
trip, passed up the Desplaines River, which 
washes the soil of Du Page County. These 
with their five attendants were the first white 
men who ever beheld its soil. They might 
have encamped on it, but this is only specula- 
tion. La Barre became Governor of the coun- 
try from 1682 to 1685, during whose term of 
office La Salle, Tonty and numerous mission- 
aries and fur traders passed along the Des- 
plaines River to and from the " Chicagou " 
portage, which route of travel is older than 
history. 

Denonville was Governor from 1685 to 1689. 
Frontenac a second term from 1689 to 1699. 
De Calliers from 1699 to 1703. Vandreville 
from 1703 to 1726. Beauharnois from 1726 
to 1747. Galissoniere from 1747 to 1749. 
Jouquiere from 1747 to 1752. Sonquill for 
1752. 

Du Quesne from 1753 to 1755, during whose 
term of office the French built forts where Erie 
and Pittsburgh, Penn., now stands, the latter 
being named after him. The Marquis 
de Vandreville de Cavagnal was the last 
French Governor; his authority ceased when 
the English conquered the country under Gen. 
Amherst ; the chief victory by which the con- 
quest being made was Wolf's on the heights of 
Abraham in 1759. Though Canada now was 
under English rule with Sir Jeffrey Amherst 
as Governor, yet the French posts of the Illi- 
nois country were not taken possession of by 
the English till 1765, when Capt. Stirling, with 
a force of one hundred men, established him- 
self at Fort Chartres, at which time the English 
flag first waved over the soil of the Prairie 
State. 

Gen. James Miller succeeded Amherst as 
Governor the same year, 1765, who, in turn, 
was suceeded by Paulus Emelius Irving in 
1766. The latter was succeeded by Sir Guy 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY, 



13 



Carleton, who was Governor till 1770. Hector 
T. Crumahe was Governor till 1774, and Sir 
Guy Carleton again till 1778, daring whose 
term of office the American Declaration of In- 
dependence in 1776 raised a new and then 
strange issue in the minds of men. During 
all these past years of French and English 
occupation, the native inhabitants of Du Page 
County, as well as their white companions, the 
fur traders, took interest in all that was pass- 
ing in the political world, and when the Amer- 
ican fires of the Revolution were kindled along 
the Atlantic coast, the issue was explained to 
the Indians of the entire Northwest as the En- 
glish viewed it, which, of course, won their 
sympathies. The Americans were represented 
to the Indians as being cruel and savage to the 
last degree, and the quiet French of the Illinois 
country, together with their loving red com- 
panions, believed the story, yet a combination 
of events in 1778 dispelled this illusion and 
changed the destiny of the Northwest. This 
was George Rogers Clark's conquest of the Illi- 
nois country, which was the first raising of the 
American flag on her soil. By virtue of this 
conquest, the country was transferred from 
English to American rule, and by the peace of 
Paris in 1783, the entire Northwest, as far as 
the Mississippi River, became a part of the 
United States. 

Until the year 1784, it was within the juris- 
diction of the Old Virginia Colony, at which 
time it passed into that of the United States, 
and three years later, in 1787, St. Clair was ap- 
pointed to govern the entire Northwest, of 
which Du Page County formed a part. 

In 1800, the Territory of Indiana was set off, 
which included the present States of Indiana, 
Illinois, Wisconsin and the Peninsular portion 
of Michigan, and William Henry Harrison was 
appointed Governor, with Vincennes on the Wa- 
bash as the seat of government. In 1809, the 
Territory of Illinois was set off and Ninian 
Edwards was appointed Governor, who held 



this position till Illinois became a State, and 
Shadrack Bond was its first Governor. Edward 
Coles was, in 1S22, elected the next Governor, 
after a struggle between the advocates of slav- 
ery and those of freedom, perhaps never before 
equaled in a State election in sanguine bitter- 
ness, for particulars of which see E. B. Wash- 
burne's Life of Edward Coles. 

During all these years, the original owners of 
the soil (the Indians) were resting in a happy 
but treacherous security that they should ever 
retain it. No white people had settled on it or 
manifested any disposition to do so, and 
although six miles square had been ceded to 
the United States by the Pottawatomies and 
other tribes at the treaty of Greenville in 1795> 
yet up to this time no use had been made of it 
except to build a fort and establish a trading- 
post there. The first special conveyance of 
lands within the limits of Du Page Count}- from 
the Indians to the United States was made Au- 
gust 24, 1816. The Pottawatomies (who then 
held the whole of Du Page County) uniting with 
the Ottawas and Chippewas in making a grant 
to Ninian Edwards, William Clark and Auguste 
Chouteau acting in behalf of the United States. 
The cession included the southeast corner of 
Lisle Township, all of Downer's Grove except 
the northwest corner and the southeast corner 
of York. 

The whole cession was a strip of land which 
the Government bought for the purpose of con- 
structing a military road on it from Chicago to 
Ottawa to facilitate the building of the Illinois 
and Michigan Canal, a scheme to which pub- 
lic attention had early been called. Says Mr. 
Edwards : " Having been one of the Commis- 
sioners who treated for this land, I personally 
know that the Indians were induced to believe 
that the opening of the canal would be very ad- 
vantageous to them, and under authorized ex- 
pectations that this would be done, they ceded 
the land for a trifle." (See Edwards' History 
of Illinois, page 99.) 



14 



HISTORY OF BU PAGE COUNTY. 



The Pottawatomies, or Peuteowatamis as 
they were sometimes called, were found b} - the 
French adventurers along the shores of Lake 
Michigan when the country was first discovered 
by them. The position they held was a com- 
manding one as to localitj', as it is known that 
their hunting-grounds extended at one time all 
around the Southern extremity of Lake Michi- 
gan, though shared at various times with the 
Ottawas, the Cherokees and the Miamis. 

When Alouez was exploring the shores and 
islands of Lake Superior, even before the inte- 
rior of the country had been entered except by 
Nicolet, he met a delegation of 300 Pottawato- 
mies at Chagouamigon (an island in Lake Su- 
perior) as early as 1668. Among them was an 
old man of 100 winters. Says the relation : 
He appears to have been a great " medicine 
man " among his tribe, and was regarded by 
them as a wonderful prophet. He could fast 
for twenty days, and often saw the Great Spirit. 
This venerable seer died while on the island on 
his visit to Alouez here. 

Father Marquette makes frequent mention of 
the Pottawatomies in his journal, which he 
kept, in the winter of 1674-75, at "Chicagou,'' 
and to them and the Illinois tribes was he in- 
debted for many acts of kindness extended to 
him during his detention at Chicago on account 
of sickness. 

This tribe continued to be the transcend- 
ent Indian power along the Southern shores 
of Lake Michigan from its first discovery till 
the final removal of all the Indians from the 
country by Col. Russell in 1836. They took 
sides with the British in the war of 1812, and 
struck heavy blows against the Americans in 
that war, of which the massacre at Fort Dear- 
born and other casualties in the early part of 
that war bear testimony. 

They had joined with other tribes in ceding 
six miles square at the mouth of Chicago River 
to the Americans at the treaty of Greenville in 
1795, as alreadj* told, and when the progress 



and development of the country demanded fur- 
ther cessions of territory, it was to them chiefly 
that the Government looked as the highest au- 
thorit}* to apply to for the purchase of needed 
lands. 

As late as 1833, they had only sold to the 
United States Government the small part of 
their Illinois hunting-grounds contained within 
the limits of the treaty of 1816, and up to this 
time they owned, perhaps, in common with the 
Ottawas and Cherokees, all that part of North- 
ern Illinois which lies east of Rock River and 
northwest of the strip of land ceded by the 
three tribes in 1816. Settlers were coming in- 
to the country and staking out their claims, 
knowing full well that the Government would 
soon extinguish the Indian title. 

Under this pressure, the United States Gov- 
ernment summoned the Pottawatomies, Ottawa 
and Chippewa, tribes to a great council to be 
held at Chicago in September, 1833. This was 
the greatest event the little then mushroom 
town had ever seen. Besides the interest the 
Indians felt in the treaty, there were scores of 
white men gathered around the spot to put in 
various speculative claims as to property al- 
leged to have been stolen by the Indians, or to. 
bring in enormous charges for services ren- 
dered to the Government by virtue of contracts 
of an indefinite character. 

The Government had made immense prepa- 
rations to feed the Indians, of whom three tribes 
were on the ground with their squaws and pa- 
pooses stretched on boards or slung in pocket- 
shaped blankets. 

After several days of palaver in which the 
whims of the Indians were artfulby humored, 
and the bright side of their natures had been 
brought to the front by those arts which had the 
result of years of practice, the Indians finally 
affixed their sign to the treaty, by which they 
sold the entire northeastern portion of Illinois (an 
area embracing more than ten of its present 
counties, among which Du Page was one) to 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



15 



the Government. G. B. Porter. Thomas J. V. 
Owen and William Weatherford, in behalf of 
the Government, negotiated the treaty. It 
bears date of Chicago. September 20, 1833. It 
was the last treaty of importance ever held 
with the Indians in the Northwest, and was the 
instrument by which the Indian title to the 
country became extinguished after its joint oc- 
cupation b} r the red and white races (the latter 
including the French) ever since 1673, more 
than a century and a half. 

At no other place in America had the In- 
dians lingered so long after the advent of the 
whites, and it is not strange that a great variety 
of associations had sprung up between the 
triple alliances of native, French and English 
races, as they had mingled together at the 
" Chicagon " portage. Here was the great carry- 
ing-place between the immense prairie country 
to the southwest, and the lakes and along the 
shores of Lake Michigan, from " Chicagou " to 
the straits. Indian canoes were frequently 
passing to and fro during the summer season, 
and Mud Lake and the Desplaines River was 
in this direct line of travel. The first interest 
that drove the American element to Chicago 
was the Indian trade, and the American Fur 
Company was its first representative. Most of 
those engaged by this company were men bred 
on the frontier, and felt no repugnance toward 
the Indians, but on the contrary not a few felt 
a friendship for them, strengthened by years of 
companionship in the fascinating sports of 
border life, which not only level social distinc- 
tions, but accept a good fellowship through a 
rough exterior, intolerable to the uninitiated 
civilian, whose motto is " the tailor makes the 
man.'' Many of the Indians could make nice 
discriminations in issues when natural rights 
were at stake, and the higher law to them was 
a tribunal from which there was no appeal. 
This is not too much to say of them till they 
were brutalized by bad whisky, and their morals 
corrupted by the vices without being elevated 



by the virtues of the whites. The former they 
could imitate, but the latter were sealed books 
to them. The amount of goods dispensed to 
them at Chicago to fulfill treaty stipulations, 
was often very large, and in order to distribute 
them equitably, men were chosen for the 
service whose personal acquaintance with the 
Indians would enable them to do it in the most 
satisfactory manner. On these occasions the 
hugh piles of goods, consisting largely of In- 
dian blankets were dispensed by peace-meal 
to the different Indian families, according to 
their necessities, but sometimes a discarded 
Indian lassie, whose place had been substituted 
by a white wife, came in for an extra share of 
finery as an offset for lacerated affections — a 
cheap way of satisfying such claims. Nowa- 
days it costs as many thousand dollars as it 
did then \ards of cheap broadcloth. 

The removal of the Pottawatomies from the 
country was effected in 1835-36, as before 
stated by Col. J. B. F. Russell. 

Previous to the death of his widow, which 
took place in the present year 1882, she al- 
lowed the writer to take items from her hus- 
band's journal, and the following is one of the 
items : 

" The first party of Indians left Chicago Sep- 
tember 21, 1835, with the Chiefs Robinson, 
Caldwell and La Fromborse, and proceeded to 
their place of rendezvous twelve miles from 
Chicago, on the Desplaines — a place of meeting 
usual on such occasions. I met them in coun- 
cil and presented to them the object of the 
meeting, and the views of the Government re- 
lative to their speedy removal to their new 
country. They wished to defer answering what 
I had said to them for two days, to which I 
consented. Sunday, 28th, provided teams and 
transportation for the removal of the Indians.'' 

The journal next proceeds to detail the par- 
ticulars of his thankless toil in satisfying the 
real and whimsical wants of his captious charge, 
who honored him with the appellation of father, 



16 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



and vexed him with complaints continually. 
Their course lay westward through Du Page 
Count}', and their first stopping place was on 
Skunk River, in Iowa. Patogushah started 
with his band to winter at this place. His was 
the first party to start independent of Govern- 
ment assistance. Robinson had command of a 
separate part}-, Caldwell another, Wabunsie 
another, and Holliday another, and Robert Kin- 
zie and Mr. Kirchival assisted Mr. Russell in 
superintending the whole. Fort Des Moines lay 
on their route to Fort Leavenworth, near which 
was their reservation on the Missouri River. 
They were to draw their supplies from the fort 
as stipulated by the Government at the treaty, 
after they had settled themselves in their new 
home adjacent to it. 

Two years after their settlement, owing to 
feelings of hostility which the frontier settlers 
felt toward them, they were removed to Council 
Bluffs, from whence, after remaining a few 
years, they were again removed to the Kansas 
Territory, where they now live, diminished in 
numbers from 5,000 at the time they left Illi- 
nois to less than half that number, but the}- are 
now in a prosperous condition. The report 
from the office of Indian affairs in Kansas Sep- 
tember 1, 1878, says : " The Pottawatomies 
are advancing in education, morality, Christian- 
ity and self-support. A majority of them have 
erected substantial homes, planted fruit trees, 
and otherwise beautified their surroundings. 
The average attendance at a school which the 
Government has provided for them is twenty- 
nine, from an enrollment of forty-four. The 
school buildings are well supplied with facili- 
ties for boarding and lodging the pupils, and 
also for teaching the females household duties. 

This reservation contains 77,357 acres of laud 
in Jackson County. Their wealth in individual 
property amounts to $241,050. On their farms 
they have reapers, mowers, planters, cultiva- 
tors, and other agricultural machinery, all of the 
latest approved patterns. Such is the history, 



and present condition of the people we drove 
from the soil of Du Page County, or rather our 
civilization obliged them to sell out to us, in- 
asmuch as we were mutually unendurable to 
each other. The bones of their fathers are 
now a component part of the dust beneath our 
feet, with no stone to perpetuate their memory, 
except those of Alexander Robinson and Sha- 
bonee, both of whom were esteemed by all who 
knew them for their many manly and benevo- 
lent traits of character, and whose lofty virtues 
deserve historic acknowledgment. A tomb- 
stone marks the grave of each, which is still 
beheld with respect by many who well remem- 
ber them. As already stated, ere the Indians 
had left the country, their grounds had begun 
to be claimed by the pioneer settlers, and his 
plowshare had already scarred the soil never 
before turned up to the mellowing influence of 
the sun. 

The Du Page River had, from time imme- 
morial, been a stream well known. It took its 
name from a French trader who settled on this 
stream below the fork previous to 1S00. Hon. 
H. W. Blodgett, of Waukegan, informs the 
writer that J. B. Beaubien had often spoken to 
him of the old Frenchman, Du Page, whose sta- 
tion was on the bank of the river, down toward 
its mouth, and stated that the river took its 
name from him. The county name must have 
the same origin. Col. Gurdon S. Hubbard, who 
came into the country in 1818, informs the 
writer that the name Du Page, as applied to the 
river then, was universally known, but the 
trader for whom it was named lived there before 
his time. Mr. Beaubien says it is pronounced 
Du Pazhe (a having the sound of ah, and that 
the P should be a capital). This was in reply 
to Mr. Blodgett's inquiry of him concerning the 
matter. 

The county organization of the great North- 
west grew into, or, rather, was, reduced into its 
present conditions by successively subdividing 
the immense areas over which its first courts 



HISTORY OF DI7 PAGE COUNTY. 



17 



held jurisdiction after Territories and States 
had been established. 

After the conquest of the Illinois county- by 
Gen. George Rogers Clark, in 1778, according to 
the old Virginia claim, the whole Northwest was a 
part of her territory. This claim rested on her 
original charter from King James (which, ac- 
cording to the view taken of it by Thomas 
Paine, was absurd). But, without discussing 
its merits, let us record the commendable part 
this State took to preserve the fruits of Clark's 
conquest. 

In the spring succeeding it (1779), Col. John 
Todd, under a commission from Patrick Henry, 
then Governor of Virginia, came to Vincennes, 
on the Wabash and Kaskaskia, 111. (over both of 
which places the American flag waved), for the 
purpose of establishing a temporary govern- 
ment, according to the provisions of the act of 
the General Assembly of Virginia, bearing date 
of October, 1778. On the 15th of June, 1779, 
he issued the following proclamation : 

Illinois Countt, To Wit: 

Whereas, from the fertility and beautiful situation 
of the lands bordering on the Mississippi, Ohio, Illi- 
nois and Wabash Rivers, the taking up of the usual 
quantity of land heretofore allowed for a settlement 
by the Government of this country : 

I do therefore issue this proclamation, strictly en- 
joining all persons whatsoever from making any new 
settlements upon the flat lands of the said rivers or 
within one league of said lands, unless in manner 
and form of settlements as heretofore made by the 
French inhabitants, until further orders herein 
given. And in order that all the claims to lands in 
said county may be fully known, and some method 
provided for perpetuating by record the just claims, 
every inhabitant is required, as soon as conven- 
iently may be, to lay before the person, in each 
district appointed for that purpose, a memorandum 
of his or her land, with copies of all their vouchers; 
and when vouchers have never been given or are 
lost, such depositions or certificates as will tend to 
support their claims — the memorandum to mention 
the quantity of land, to whom originally granted, 
and when; deducing the title through the various 
occupants to the present possessor. The number of 
adventurers who will shortly overrun this country 



renders the above method necessary, as well to as- 
certain the vacant lands as to guard against tres- 
passes, which will probably be committed on lands 
not on record. 

Given under my hand and seal at Kaskaskia the 
15th day of June, in the third year of the Common- 
wealth, 1779. John Todd, Jr. 

The foregoing is the first official act of 
the Americans to organize civil government 
over the Northwest. The Virginia cession of 
1784, rendered it a nullity, aud the entire coun- 
try with its 2,000 French^inhabitants, and its 
10,000 Indian population was virtually under 
no national jurisdiction during a period of 
several years. 

Even when St. Clair was appointed Gov- 
ernor in 1787, the English still held possession 
of Detroit, Michilimacinae, St. Joseph on Lake 
Michigan, Prairie du Chien and Sandusky, 
and contrary to treaty stipulations, retained 
these posts till July, 1796. This retention did 
not bring on any conflict of authority between 
St. Clair and Lord Dorchester, who then, as 
Governor of Canada, extended his rule over all 
the towns on the upper lakes, and Oswego on 
Lake Ontario. The reason for this was because 
Washington gave instructions to St. Clair to do 
nothing which might oflend the English, but 
wait until amicable negotiations should secure 
our rights. The attitude of Spain was then a 
constant menace and threat against the North- 
west. This power held the mouth of the Mis- 
sissippi River, and all the Territory on its west 
side indefinitely — perhaps to the Pacific coast, 
(if she could circumvent the English in her 
claims to what she ultimately held there). Early 
in 1779, war was declared between these two 
powers ; and the Spanish of St. Louis, in then- 
zeal to strike a blow at the English, formed an 
expedition against the British post at St. Joseph, 
under command of Capt. Don Eugenio Pierre. 
It started January 2, 1781, with a force of 
sixty-five men, surprised and took the place, 
and by virtue of this conquest made an attempt 
(absurd as it was fruitless) to annex the tcrri- 



18 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



tory intervening to Spain, which would be all 
Northern Illinois. Balked in this attempt at 
the treaty of Paris, which established the Mis- 
sissippi as our Western boundary, Spain sub- 
sequently closed the port of New Orleans 
against the commerce of the Northwest, and 
contrary to treaty stipulations of 1795, retained 
possession of Natchez and one other port on 
the east bank of the Mississippi, at the same 
time forbidding the navigation of the river to 
the western people, except on condition that 
they would secede from the Atlantic States 
and make themselves an independent nation 
under protection of the Spanish Government. 
These were the conditions on which they might 
secure the Mississippi as a thoroughfare to the 
seas. 

Gen. James Wilkinson, after the death of 
Gen. Wayne, succeeded to the command of the 
United States forces in the West, and to him 
the Baron de Carondelet, the Spanish Govern- 
or of Louisiana, sent a messenger named Thomas 
Powers, with a request that he would send no 
force against the posts on the east bank of the 
Mississippi, held by Spain, but would wait for 
the delivery of the posts till the matter could 
be negotiated amicably. Powers, at the same 
time, tried to bribe the people of the Northwest 
to declare themselves independent, and offered 
them $100,000 and the free navigation of the 
Mississippi if they would do so — a paltry sum 
whereby to corrupt a State, even if the State 
were capable of the treachery, and its record 
serves rather to reveal the low Spanish esti- 
mate of patriotism than any honor of which an 
American need be proud, for having rejected 
the bribe. Orders were issued for the arrest of 
Powers, as soon as the nature of his mission 
became known to Washington, but he evaded 
pursuit and found his way back to his master, 
the feeble old dotard, who was Spanish Gov- 
ernor of New Orleans at the time. 

Great as his folly was in attempting to divide 
the union of the States, the matter was a cause 



of much solicitude and anxiety in the minds of 
our statesmen at the time, and it required their 
utmost exertions to prevent armed expeditions 
from the Northwest from going down the 
river and forcing a passage to the gulf. John 
Ja3 r , one of our ablest men, couuseled mod- 
eration, under an assurance that by waiting 
a short time, the force of events would secure 
our rights without war. These rights on 
the Lower Mississippi were not secured fully 
till 1798, during the summer of which year 
the Spaniards reluctantly gave up their 
forts on the east bank of the Mississippi, 
and Gen. Wilkinson erected Fort Adams on the 
spot occupied by one of them, which was just 
above the thirty-first degree of north latitude. 
From that time henceforward, the navigation 
of the Mississippi was never closed against the 
commerce of the Northwest, till by the rebels 
in 1861, who kept it closed three years, when 
b}' the courage of not a few Du Page County 
soldiers, with others, it was opened. 

It has already been stated that the whole 
Illinois country had been officially organized 
as Illinois County by action of the Governor of 
Virginia in 1779, which became annulled in 
1781 when that State ceded the Northwest to 
the United States. 

Then there followed a hiatus in organized 
government here till St. Clair, who was ap- 
pointed Governor in 1787, had established 
courts in the Northwest the next year, in 1788. 
These courts did not extend their jurisdiction 
to the Illinois country till 1790, at which time 
Illinois Territory became organized as one of 
the four counties in the Northwest, and was 
named St. Clair County, and was represented 
in the Territorial Legislature held at Fort 
Washington (Cincinnati), by Shadrack Bond. 

On May 7, 1800. when the Territory of In- 
diana was set off, which embraced both of the 
present States of Illinois and Indiana, the same 
general laws which had hitherto prevailed in 
the Northwest were continued in operation in 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



19 



Indiana Territory, and no civil subdivisions into 
new counties were made, till the 28th of April, 
1809, at which time Illinois Territory was set 
off and divided into two counties — Randolph 
and St. Clair — by Nathaniel Pope, Secretary 
under Ninian Edwards, its Governor. 

St. Clair County embraced its Northern por- 
tion, including the present county of Du Page, 
which then had only transient white inhabitants 
in the employ of French fur traders. 

The next change in counties made was Sep- 
tember 14, 1812, when Governor Edwards es- 
tablished the county of Madison, which em- 
braced the whole portion of the territory north 
of a line extending along the south side of the 
present county of Madison due eastwardly to 
the Wabash River, which included the present 
county of Du Page. 

No further civil divisions were made while 
Illinois remained a territory, but an issue came 
up, on bringing it into the Union, of vital im- 
portance not only to the localit}' of Du Page 
and its adjacent counties, but to the nation 
itself. 

The terms by which the Northwest was 
ceded by Virginia to the United States pro- 
vided for the number of States into which it 
might be subdivided, which was to be five at 
most, and the ordinance also provided that in 
the event of five States being made of the ter- 
ritory, two should be constituted out of the 
territory north of a due east and west line 
drawn through the territory, intersecting the 
southern extremity of Lake Michigan. 

This being the law, the people of Illinois 
had no expectation that the northern boundary 
of the State could go farther north than this 
point when it should apply for admission into 
the Union. Wisconsin Territory had already 
been set off in 1805, with its southern limits 
on a line due west from the southern limits of 
the lake, in accordance with what nobody had 
yet questioned as the construction of the law. 

Thus matters stood when it was proposed to 



bring Illinois Territory into the Union, in 
1818. Judge Nathaniel Pope then analyzed 
the whole situation, and, by the force of his 
logic, explained away the legal objections to 
the extension of the State of Illinois to a 
point farther north than the act of cession 
from Virginia had provided as just told. 

First let us state his arguments for the 
change, and these were the substance of them : 
Lake Michigan, connected by water communi- 
cation with the Eastern States, and iudissolu- 
bly bound the interests of the country 
adjacent to it to them. The Mississipppi 
River and its tributaries exerted the same in- 
fluence in a southern direction with the South. 
Give Illinois a good frontage on Lake Michi- 
gan, with the port of Chicago the terminus of 
the canal to be built, and a mighty State would 
be formed, holding the destinies of both sec- 
tions within its grasp — the middle link in the 
chain, and the strongest one. Here was an 
object worth working for, and he laid the case 
before Congress to bring it about. He con- 
tended that Illinois could claim the whole of 
Wisconsin if Congress chose to give her such 
dimensions, inasmuch as the ordinance left it 
optional with the United States to divide the 
territory into only' three States, in which case 
Indiana must reach from the Ohio River to the 
British possessions, and Illinois from Cairo to 
the British possessions. But that Wisconsin 
was powerless to establish a boundary which 
should conflict with the powers of the United 
States, who had power to embrace her whole 
area within the limits of Illinois. He carried 
his measure through both Houses, and the 
northern line of Illinois was established on the 
parallel of 42° 30', where it now is. If he 
had failed in this, Du Page County would mnv 
have been a part of Wisconsin, and perhaps 
Illinois would not have had so strong a Union 
element when the issue came up in 1861 
whether the United States was to be divided or 
reut in two. 



20 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



The following are Judge Pope's words on 
the subject, which, as we look back upon the 
events which have since taken place, seem to 
have been prophetic : " A very large com- 
merce of the Center and South would be found 
both upon the lakes and upon the rivers. As- 
sociations in business, in interest and of friend- 
ship would be formed, both with the North and 
the South. A State thus situated, having such 
a decided interest in the commerce and in the 
preservation of the whole confederacy, can 
never consent to disunion ; for the Union 
cannot be dissolved without a division and 
disruption of the State itself." 

Du Page County is a part of this strip of 
laud, the title of which was held in dispute be- 
tween the States of Illinois and Wisconsin, and 
on the decision of the issue which decided the 
question of ownership to it, being a momentous 
one ; for it must not be forgotten that when the 
" tug of war " came in the Legislature of the 
State as to vital questions on sustaining the 
Union, the loyalists had nothing to spare in or- 
der to turn the scale, and then it was that the 
influence of the part of the State which laid be- 
tween its northern line and a line drawn due 
west from the southern limits of Lake Michigan, 
suddenly arose into prominence, and verified 
the arguments that Judge Pope made in 1818 
in favor of the line of 42 3 30', as the northern 
line of the State ; and here it should not be 
omitted, that the influence of our Mr. Lincoln 
himself, potent as it was, in the immaculate 
foot-prints which he had left behind in the State, 
before he left it for the White House, though it 
had an equal share with the northern tier of 
counties in preserving the unconditional loyalty 
of the State, was barely sufficient. These remin- 
iscences are no dream ; they are founded on 
reality, and must ever stand as a memento that 
our county, together with adjacent ones, was in 
that crisis the local hinge on which the issue 
turned, and to record this in history' is but an 
act of justice. 



Crawford County was among the first organ- 
ized on the admission of the State into the 
Union, and included all the territory north of 
its present locality. It was soon reduced in its 
area by the organization of Clark County, whose 
dimensions extended from its present boundary 
over the entire northern part of the State like 
its predecessor, which had in turn been laid out 
on a grand scale, and reduced in proportion as 
the progress of settlements had made it neces- 
sary to subdivide the great northern wilderness 
into new counties. 

The next change in counties affecting the 
northern part of the State was January 31, 
1821, under Gov. Bond, at which time Pike 
County was organized, which took in all the ter- 
ritory in the State north of the southern line of 
the present Pike County, the Illinois and the 
Kankakee Rivers. 

Du Page was then a part of Pike County till 
the 28th of January, 1823, when the county of 
Fulton was established, comprising all of Pike 
County except the portion south of the north 
line of the present Fulton County, which change 
brought Du Page under the jurisdiction of Ful- 
ton County, of which Lewistown was the county 
seat. 

All these civil changes were previous to any- 
permanent white settlement, and there is no 
record that any of the traders or Indians whose 
erratic habits gave a temporary residence in 
what is now our county, ever applied to the 
constituted authorities for any purpose. Why 
should they? If any of the traders had a dis- 
pute, they settled it on the spot, perhaps by a 
" knock down argument," or if they wanted to 
marry any of the brunette beauties of the prai- 
rie, first they must be accomplished in the 
manly arts of hunting, or their chances would 
be slender of winning them. Next (to do the 
Indians justice), if any of the daughters of 
the higher-minded class of Indians had made 
themselves indispensable to the happiness of 
any of the traders, either French or American, 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



21 



it required no small measure of circumspec- 
tion to gain the father's consent to the marriage, 
and to do this a sound body and a reasonable 
discrimination of the principles of justice on 
the part of the suitor was necessary. 

These essentials being satisfactory ar- 
ranged, the marriage itself was only a promise 
of fidelity on both sides, and did not in the es- 
timation of these sons of the wilderness need 
the record of official authority either to make 
it binding or to strengthen its force. A few of 
these marriages were permanent, and the writer 
has interviewed the offspring of some of them 
who are now esteemed members of society 
amongst us. 

Peoria County was the next civil division 
under which Du Page fell. It was organized 
June 13, 1825, with the following boundaries: 
" Beginning where the line between Town- 
ships 11 and 12 north intersects the Illinois 
River ; thence west with said line to the range 
line between Ranges 4 and 5 east ; thence 
south with said line to the range line between 
Townships 7 and 8 ; thence east to the line be- 
tween Ranges 5 and 6 ; thence south to the 
middle of the main channel of the Illinois 
River ; thence up along the middle of the 
main channel of said river to the place of be- 
ginning." On the 7th of December, the county 
was divided into three Election Precincts, of 
which Alexander Woolcott, John Kinzie and 
John Baptiste Beaubien were Judges. 

John Dixon was Clerk of the county, and so 
remained till his resignation, May 1, 1830, when 
Stephen Stillman was appointed. 

Cook was the next organized county of the 
now reduced area of Northern Illinois wilder- 
ness. It took in at first the present counties 
of Lake, McHenry, Will, Du Page and Iroquois, 
the act organizing it bearing date of March 1, 
1831. It had three voting precincts — the Chi- 
cago, the Hickory Creek and the Du Page, the 
latter of which included the present county of 
Du Page and portions of Will. 



Ou the 8th of the same mouth. Samuel Miller 
Gohlson Kircheval and James Walker were 
sworn in as Commissioners, who promptly pro- 
ceeded to legislate for the wholesome regula- 
tion of the infant county. Prominent among 
the laws they passed were those regulating the 
prices of spirituous liquors, which they took as 
good care should not be extortionate, as did 
the French Revolutionists the price of bread 
during the Jacobin Reign of Terror in France. 
It was "ordered that the following rates be 
allowed to tavern-keepers, to wit : Each half 
pint of wine, rum or brandy, 25 cents ; each 
pint of wine, rum or brand}', 37-J- cents ; each 
half pint of gin. 18f cents ; pint of gin, 31^ 
cents ; gill of whisky, 6^ cents ; half pint of 
whisky, 12£ cents ; pint of whisky, 18f cents. 
For each breakfast and supper, 25 cents ; each 
dinner, 37£ cents ; each horse feed, 25 cents ; 
keeping horse one night, 50 cents ; lodging for 
each man per night, 12£ cents ; for cider or 
beer, one pint, 6^ cents ; one quart of cider or 
beer, 12£ cents." 

The Commissioners also soon issued permits 
to Alexander Robinson, J. B. Beaubein and 
Madore Beaubein to sell goods, who, added 
to six merchants already established in the 
county, made nine. From the records of the same 
j'ear, 1831, subsequent to those already men- 
tioned, appears the name of Joseph Naper, of 
Naper settlement, who, it appears, was then a 
licensed merchant and the first in the present 
county of Du Page. 

Such are the first laws ever enacted to pre- 
vail over this county after settlers came to it. 
At that time, Chicago, Canal Port, Naperville, 
Desplaiues, Keepotaw and Thornton, were re- 
ported as the towns of Cook County. It was 
named after Daniel P. Cook, the same who, with 
the election of Shadrack Bond for Governor, in 
1818, had been elected Attorney General. To 
him the country along the canal owes a lasting 
obligation. At a session of the Legislature, 
January 17, 1825, a law was passed incorpo- 



22 



HISTORY OF DTT PAGE COUNTY. 



rating the Illinois & Michigan Canal Associa- 
tion, with full power to build the canal. By 
the seventh section of their charter, it was pro- 
vided that all immunities, etc., hitherto made 
by the General Government to facilitate the 
building of the canal, should revert to the asso- 
ciation to which the State had granted the char- 
ter to build it. This excess of State authority 
to dispose of the large amount of land (ever}' 
alternate section of a strip sis miles wide on 
each side of the canal, which the Government had 
given to aid in building it), by placing the lands 
at the disposal of a private company, was not 
looked upon with favor by the General Govern- 
ment, and, had it not been for the efforts of Mr. 
Cook, the State would have lost the lands, and 
the canal project would have been indefinitely 
postponed. He was then Member of Congress, 
and, seeing the danger, he used his powerful in- 
fluence among his constituents to have the act 
repealed which the State had passed. In this 
he was successful, and the corporations were 
obliged to surrender their charter. 

We come now to the organization of Du Page 
County — the last subdivision of Cook. In 1838, 
this was considered and talked over by the peo- 
ple, and a plau to make four counties out of 
the area of Cook was looked upon with favor. 
To effect this object, committees were appointed 
from each respective locality proposed as the 
territory to be occupied by them. 

It was first proposed by the Commissioners 
to create one county of nine townships in the 
northwest corner of Cook, which, had it been 
done, would have taken the three present town- 
ships, viz., Wayne, Bloomingdale and Addison, 
together with the present townships of Hanover, 
Schaumberg, Elk Grove, Barrington, Palatine 
and Wheeling in Cook, for one of the four new 
counties. Du Page County was to come im- 
mediately south of this, and take in nine town- 
ships, in which case Naperville would have 
been not very distant from the center of the 
county. 



For some cause not known to the writer, the 
Commissioners appointed to mature this plan of 
subdividing Cook County never met at the ap- 
pointed place of rendezvous, which was to have 
been at a certain hotel in Chicago. The conse- 
quence was, the subject of setting-off Du Page 
County came before the Legislature under differ- 
ent forms, and the action of that body specified 
the limits of the county according to the act of 
which the following is a copy : 

Section 1. Be it enacted by the people of the 
State of Illinois represented in the General Assem- 
bly : That all of that tract of country lying within 
the following boundaries, to wit: Commencing on 
the east line of Kane County at the division line 
between Sections 18 and 19, in Township 37 north, of 
Range 9 east, of the Third Principal Meridian, pur- 
suing the same line eastward until it strikes the 
Desplaines River; thence following the said river up 
to the range line between Township 11 and 12 east, 
of the Third Principal Meridian; thence north on 
said line to the township line between 40 and 11; 
thence west on said line to the east line of Kane 
County; thence south on the east line of Kane 
County to the place of beginning, shall constitute a 
new county by the name of Du Page; provided al- 
ways that no part of the county above described, 
now forming a part of Will County, shall be in- 
cluded within the said county of Du Page, unless 
the inhabitants now residing in said part of Will 
County shall, by a vote to he given by them at the 
next August election, decide by a majority of legal 
voters that they prefer to have the said territory 
make a part of the said county of Du Page. 

Sec 2. An election shall be held at the Pre- 
emption House, in Naperville, on the first Monday 
in May, next, by the qualified voters of said county, 
for county officers, who, when qualified, shall hold 
their offices until the next general election ; said 
election shall be conducted and returns thereof 
made to the Clerk of the County Commissioners' 
Court of Cook County, as in other cases, and said 
Clerk shall give certificates of election; and when 
said County Commissioners shall be elected and 
qualified, the said county of Du Page shall be duly 
organized. S. M. Skinner, Stephen J. Scott and 
Loren J. Butler, are hereby appointed Judges of 
said election. 

Sec. 3. Said county of Du Page shall be at- 
tached to the Seventh Judicial District, and the 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



23 



Judge of said circuit shall fix the terms of said 
court therein, two of which shall be held in said 
county annually at Napcrville, where the County 
Commissioners may direct, until the county build- 
ings are completed. 

Sec. 4. For the purpose of locating the per- 
manent seat of justice for said county of Du Page, 
the following-named persons are hereby appointed 
Commissioners, to wit: Ralph Woodruff, of La 
Salle County ; Seth Read, of Kane County, and 
Horatio G. Loomis, of Cook, who, or a majority of 
them, shall meet at the Pre-emption House, in Xa- 
perville, on the first Monday of June, or within 
thirty days thereafter, and first being duly sworn by 
some Justice of the Peace, shall proceed to locate 
the seat of justice for said county at the most eligi- 
ble and convenient point, provided the said Com- 
missioners shall obtain for the county from the 
claimant a quantity of land, not less than three 
acres, and $3,000 for the puqjose of erecting county 
buildings, which sum shall be secured to the County 
Commissioners and paid out under their direction 
for the purposes aforesaid. 

Sec. 5. The Commissioners appointed to locate 
said county seat, shall each be allowed the sum of 
§3 per day for each day by them necessarily em- 
ployed in the performance of that duty, to be paid 
out of the treasury of said county. 

Sec. 6. The qualified voters of the county of 
Du Page, in all elections except count}- elections, 
shall vote with the district to which they belong 
until the next apportionment, and shall in all 
respects be entitled to the same privileges and rights 
as in general belong to the citizens of other counties 
in this State. William L. D. Ewing. 

Speaker of the Mouse of Representatives. 
S. H. Anderson, 

Speaker of the Senate. 

Approved February 9, 1839. 

Tho. Caklin. 



State of Illinois, ) 

Office of Secretary of State, f 
I, Alexander P. Field, Secretary of State, do h 
by certify the foregoing to be a true and perfect 
copy of "An act to create the county of Du Paffe," 
now on file in my office. In testimony whereof I 
have hereunto set my hand and the seal of State at 
Vandalia February 18, 1839. 

[l. b.] A. P. Field, 

Secretary of Statt . 

Previous to the passage of this act. there had 
been considerable canvassing of public opinion 



as to the division of Cook Count}-, and among 
those who took part in this discussion was Mr. 
J. Filkius, who owned property in Wheeling— 
the northern part of Cook County. His plan, 
as well as that of many others, was to create a 
county in the northern part of Cook, which should 
include the present three northern townships of 
Du Page County, with Wheeling for the county 
seat. and in accordance with this proposition, a 
representative from Naperville and one from 
the southeastern part of Cook County had 
agreed to meet at a certain hotel in Chicago to 
agree on some concert of action in the matter. 
The Naperville representative was promptly at 
the place of rendezvous, but the others did not 
attend, and no systematic plan of action was 
determined on. 

Pending these ambitious schemes, which 
local interests as well as real necessities set on 
foot, the citizens of Chicago were in a flutter 
of perturbation lest they should lose some of 
their territory, doubtless feeling their ability 
to govern more instead of being shorn of a part 
of what they then had. 

A convention now being about to assemble 
at Vandalia, to take into consideration plans 
for public improvements, it was necessary for 
the Chicagoans to call a public meeting to 
appoint delegates to attend it. Such a call at 
Chicago would then, as well as now, bring out 
their big guns as well as a full regiment of 
small arms to make a rattle of musketry after 
the cannons had been shot off ; or, in other 
words, to do the cheering after the orators had 
spoken. In obedience to the call, a meeting 
assembled on the 3d of December. 1836, and, 
as the pith of a woman's letter may be found 
in the postscript, so the chief object for which 
this meeting was called, was reserved for the 
closing business. After a few vehement speech- 
es had been made, the animus of which was 
to protest against any further division of Cook 
County, resolutions were adopted in accord 
auce with these sentiments, and a committee 



24 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



of three was appointed to circulate a petition to 
be sent to the Legislature, expressive of the will 
of the people of Cook County on the subject. 

Unfortunately for the people of Chicago, 
Joseph Naper was then representing Cook 
Count}- in the Legislature, and it was like strik- 
ing on a drum that wouldn't sound, to talk 
"such stuff'' to him. He himself was a power, 
and two of the most influential members 
of the Senate were his strong friends. One of 
these was Peter Cartwright, of Carlinville, who 
had all the Methodists in the State at his back, 
and the other was old John Harker, from Union 
Count}', who was regarded by the Egyptians 
as a host. 

Nothing more was beard about the county 
to be set off from the northern part of Cook — 
it being probably thought best not to amputate 
another limb from her body at that time. 

It is worthy of record that of the committee 
appointed at the Chicago meeting, Gurdon S. 
Hubbard was one, but for some reason best 
known to himself, he declined to serve. Per- 
haps Mr. Hubbard, in advance of any of the 
rest, saw the impolicy as well as impractica- 
bility of the scheme in question. He came to 
Chicago in 1818, and is still an active man at 
the place, which has grown from a post of the 
American Fur Company to what it now is under 
his eye. As might be supposed, the petition 
was like seed sown in stony ground. 

In due course of legislation, Du Page County 
was organized as per the act already stated, the 
first section of which gave the inhabitants of 
the three northern tiers of sections in Will 
County, the power to choose by a popular vote, 
in the following August, to which county they 
would belong. Had the election taken place 
immediately, it is almost certain that the people 
of the territory in question would have annexed 
themselves to Du Page County, to whose inter- 
ests at Naperville they had been allied by his- 
toric as well as social relations from the first; 
but the time between the passage of the 



act and the August election, which was to cast 
the die, was utilized by the Will County inter- 
ests and a formidable opposition to the Du 
Page interests was the result. To add to the 
discomfiture of the Du Page advocates, some 
one brought a bottle of whisky into the arena 
on election day, which roused the indignation 
of the teetotalers of the Will County interests, 
and brought out their full force with their 
thunder thrown in. 

The autumn sun dipped into the western 
green, the polls were closed, votes counted, 
and one majority for Will County was the re- 
sult. There wasn't much poetry about the 
canvass. It need not be claimed that Johnny, 
with the love of his inamorata in his heart, 
voted to please his would-be father-in-law or 
any such kind of moonshine. It was a sharply 
defined local and temporal issue, and for a 
small one, large results have grown out of it ; 
for had the county limits extended south of 
Naperville, as the original bill intended, no 
attempt would ever have been made to re- 
move the county seat, or if made, would not 
have been successful. 

The parties authorized by the fourth section 
of the act creating the new county to locate 
the county seat, met on the 17th of June, 1839, 
at the Pre-emption House in Naperville, and lo- 
cated it at that place. At the same time, a 
deed was executed to the county of an undi- 
vided half of the public square on which the 
county buildings were erected the same year 
by voluntary subscription from the citizens of 
Naperville to the amount of 15,000. Subse- 
quently, the small brick buildings were built for 
storing the records, etc. 

In vain may the records of any State in the 
Union be searched for a parallel in eventful 
epochs involving vital political questions which 
locally came up within their jurisdiction as has 
been thrust upon the State of Illinois, and the 
country around Chicago has been the pivot 
upon which these issues have turned. This is 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



25 



only a just conclusion to deduce from the events 
of this chapter. The next will begin with the 
pioneer work begun in Du Page County under 
a new order of things destined to subordinate 
wild nature to the uses of man, and reproduce 
old-settled and time-honored institutions on a 



generous scale, there to multiply under the 
fostering hand of nature. This has been done, 
but let us take a retrospective view of the proc- 
ess by which it was accomplished while the 
living witnesses of it are still on the historic 
stand to testify. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE PIONEER— STEPHEN J. SCOTT— THE SCOTT SETTLEMENT— BLODGETT HAULEY— BAILEY HOB- 
SON, THE FIRST SETTLER OF DU PAGE COUNTY— BUILDING THE FIRST CABIN— CROSSING A 
SLOUGH — WILLIARD SCOTT — SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS — CORN PANCAKES — THE 
NAPERS— FIRST GROUND PLOWED— THE FIRST SCHOOL— JOSEPH NAFER — IOHN 
NAPER— THE FIRST STOVE— CHRISTOPHER PAINE— THE FIRST SAW-MILL— 
HOME-MADE SPINNING WHEELS AND LOOMS— COLD WINTER OF 1830-31 
—PORTAGE TO CHIC AGO-THE LAWTONS-THE POTTAWATOMIES 
—FLIGHT TO FORT DEARBORN— HORRIBLE MASSACRE 
AT INDIAN CREEK— EXPLOITS OF COL. BEAUBIEN. 



WITHIN the memory of men now living 
the whole of Du Page County was an 
immaculate tablet on which to make the first 
footprints of progress in the form of agricult- 
ure, architecture and public works. In ancient 
times, when new countries were settled, it was 
done by nations who sent out colonies under 
the especial guardianship of a king's viceroy, 
and this was the case with the first new coun- 
tries settled in America from Europe. All 
this became changed when the American nation 
became the owner of the vast plains of the 
West. Then settlements began to be made on 
private account for the first time in the world's 
history, and such a conception of human rights 
put in such universal practice, as it was here, 
brought into being a class of men different from 
any hitherto known. They were the creation 
of their period in their habits, character and 
their self-sustaining powers. They valued 
themselves not for what their fathers had been, 
but for what they themselves were. It takes a 
few generations for mental force to gather and 
turn the thoughtsof men into new channels, and, 



by the time Northern Illinois was settled, the 
thoroughbred pioneer, in his floodtide of glory, 
came upon the scene. He is the man referred 
to— the incarnation of freedom in its broadest 
sense, the man who is a law unto himself, who 
takes a short cut to the ends of justice regard- 
less of technicalities ; the man who evinces 
himself more by what he does than b}' what he 
says, and scorns unfair distinctions not based 
on merit. 

To describe the American pioneer would re- 
quire the imagery of romance and the force of 
the drama. Behold him, as he turns his face to 
the West, his gun on his shoulder, his dog by 
his side, his horses harnessed to the wagon 
that contains his household goods, his wife and 
babies, behind which follow at a slow pace his 
cattle, driven by his young sons, whose keen 
eyes often dart their irrepressible humor from 
beneath a tattered hat brim. This is the true 
pioneer. His step is firm ; his glance is keen ; 
his whole appearance commands respect, 
though his garments may be of the coarsest 
stuff. To him belongs a singular fame, for he 



26 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



is the first to lay the dimension stone of 
a social fabric which is to grow up where 
he plants the seed, and become a lasting mon- 
ument to perpetuate his memory. 

The first of these pioneers who became ulti- 
mate residents of Du Page County were Steph- 
en J. Scott, who came with his family from 
Maryland, and made a claim on the lake shore 
just north of the present site of Evanston, in 
1826. The place was then and is still known 
as Grose Point. It is an elevated sand ridge, 
making an abrupt bauk on Lake Michigan, but 
not composed of a soil adapted to the growth 
of the cereals, which is probably the reason 
why Mr. Scott left the place and took up a 
claim at the fork of the west branch of Du 
Page River, which he did in the autumn of 
1830, with his family, among whom were his 
sons, Willard and Willis. 

This became known as the Scott settlement, 
and was the first beginning made which drew 
to the place other settlers. Its locality was 
just south of the Du Page County line in the 
present county of Will, but accretions to it 
soon extended up the stream, within the pres- 
ent limits of the county. 

Early in the following June, 1831, Isaac P. 
Rlodgett came from Amherst, Hampshire Co., 
Mass., and settled at the fork, his son Henry 
now Judge Blodgett, of Chicago, being then 
nine years old. 

Pierce Hawley also came to the place about 
the same time, and, in the summer of the next 
year. 1831, Robert Strong, Rev. Isaac Scarrett 
Capt. Henry Boardman and Isaac Stockwell 
came to the Scott settlement, and became per- 
manently identified with the interests of what 
was then known as the Du Page Country. 
These were near neighbors to the settlement 
began the same 3 - ear just above them on the 
Du Page, and soon the little gap of unclaimed 
land that intervened between them was filled 
up with new-comers. 

But the first actual settler in the count}- now 



named Du Page was Bailey Hobson. His 
widow is still living in Naperville, and the 
following is a brief narrative of the events of 
her experiences in coming to the place, as re- 
ported to the writer in June, 1882. 

Mrs. Clarinda Hobson was born in Georgia 
in December, 1804. The family emigrated to 
Orange County, Ind., in 1812, where she 
was married to Mr. Hobson in 1821. In 1830, 
they removed to the present site of New- 
ark, 111., remaining there the succeeding 
winter, when, in the following November 
of the same year, Mr. Hobson went to the 
Du Page River, about two miles below the 
present site of Naperville, and marked out 
his claim, consisting of about five hundred acres, 
lying on both sides of the river. This done, he 
returned to his temporary home to make the 
necessary preparations for building a habitation 
on his Du Page River claim. To this end, he 
again went to the place with a load of shakes 
(clapboards) with which to make a roof for his 
intended cabin, and a hired man accompanied 
him to help cut and haul to the ground the logs 
necessary for its walls. The}' had only worked 
one day, when the cold was so intense they 
were obliged to abandon their plans and turn 
their course toward home, which they reached 
in safety after two days' toiling over the bleak 
prairie with an ox team. 

With the opening of March, 1831, the work 
wa^ again resumed by sending Lewis Stewart, 
brother of Mrs. Hobson, to the place to cut the 
logs for the cabin, while Mr. Hobson himself 
was to follow with the ox team and wagon 
loaded with their household goods. A new 
dilemma now arose. More than a hundred In- 
dians had just encamped hard by their house 
for the purpose of making maple sugar in an 
adjacent grove, and she dare not stay with her 
five children alone in their midst. Meantime, 
her husband's duties were imperative. He must 
go to the new home to get the house ready for 
the opening of spring. 





s/U 



HISTORY OF DIT PAGE COUNTY. 



29 



In this emergency, Mrs. Hobsou formed the 
resolution to transport her family to a small 
settlement a few miles distant at what was then 
called Weeds', and now Hollenback's Grove. 
Besides the family, were two horses and four- 
teen head of cattle, the same stock that had 
been driven from their home in Indiana. Ac- 
cordingly, her husband started off with their 
furniture, and she, with the family and their 
flock, by a different route, to reach a temporary 
abiding place. On the way, she had a danger- 
ous slough to cross, where the track was buried 
beneath the flood, so deep that she dare not 
trust ber little ones on the horse alone, but took 
them across one or two at a time on her own 
horse and set them on the opposite bank till 
they were all safely landed. The fourteen cattle 
were then driven over and all herded safely in 
the grove, where they were kept on browse and 
what grass they could find on the early spring 
sward. Here she remained awaiting her hus- 
band's return to take the family and their stock 
to their new home. 

A few days brought this about, notwithstand- 
ing the hardships he had encountered in camp- 
ing out on the open prairie on his way. and 
other discomforts not easily imagined by those 
who read of them nowadays. March was nearly 
spent when they arrived at their home. It was 
a rough log cabin with a puncheon floor, but 
no windows. The lack of them was the smallest 
of their grievances, for the unchinked crevices 
between the logs let in light enough. 

Willard, the son of Stephen J. Scott, who had 
recently married the oldest daughter of Mr. 
Hawley, was then living in the same log cabin 
with his father, and their families being the 
nearest neighbors to the Hobson family, occa- 
sional visits were made between them, and the 
hospitalities of the wilds exchanged in true pio- 
neer style. Their entertainments did not con- 
sist of the modern aesthetic styles of serving 
their dishes, or of the epicurian qualities of 
them, but were simplified down to actual ne- 



cessities. Corn seems to have constituted their 
entire material for bread ; nor had they vege- 
tables or fruits the first year, and the corn it- 
self was in the ear, as it grew at Weeds' (now 
Holderman's) Grove, from whence it had to be 
transported by ox teams. 

The problem now was how to convert it into 
meal, the solution of which, however, did not 
task the ingenuity of a true pioneer to its ut- 
most by any means. The first process was to 
shell it ; the next to immerse it in hot water to 
start the hulls. It was then put into an iron 
kettle and pounded with the head of an iron 
wedge (the tool used for splitting rails) till it 
was made into meal. The next process was to 
put this meal into cold water and float the hulls 
off, and the meal was ready for use. 

It was made into a batter with water only, and 
fried like pancakes, or. for variety's sake, spread 
on a wooden board and turned up to a fire to 
be baked into bread. Sifting this meal when 
dried left its coarsest portions for hominy, 
which gave them varieties improvised out of 
corn. 

Such was the first household and home 
made in this county, of which a faithful witness 
in the person of Mrs. Hobson is still among us 
in the full enjoyment of her mental faculties. 

The next who came to the county were the 
Napers. They were men of broad ambition 
like the pioneers who had preceded them in 
the Scott settlement. While residents of Ohio, 
they had owned a sailing vessel on the lakes, 
named the Telegraph, which they had sold, 
agreeing to deliver it in Chicago in the sum- 
mer of 1831, and in this vessel on its passage to 
this place they came with the families of John 
Murray. Lyman Butterfield, Henry T. Wdson 
and a Mr. Carpenter. It set sail from Ashta- 
bula, Ohio, in June, landing them in Chicago 
in time to reach Du Page eariy in July. 

The spring preceding, Joseph Naper had 

been to the place, made a claim and hired men 

to come from Chicago and put up a log cabin 

b " 



30 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



where Naperville now stands. The building 
was made ready and also ten acres of ground 
" broke," as per a contract with Mr. Scott, on 
the arrival of the colony, for such in substance, 
was the Naper settlement. The season was too 
far advanced to plant corn, and in its stead, 
buckwheat was sown on seven acres of it, and 
the balance planted with rutabaga turnips. 
This, together with a few acres of ground 
planted by Mr. Hobson, constituted the first 
tillage of the soil of this county, unless some 
of its red owners, with the assistance of their 
loving brothers — the French — had raised scan- 
ty patches of corn, beans or pumpkins on it, 
which is quite probable, for as early as 1790 
the Indians had cultivated extensive fields on 
the Maumee, and also on the Wabash, and 
more than half a century before had, with the 
aid of the French, plowed and planted fields in 
Southern Illinois, and also reaped considerable 
income from working the lead mines of Galena 
on their own private account, all of which goes 
to show that the inevitable crops of corn so 
essential to their existence had ere this been 
planted by them on the fertile lauds of the Du 
Page. Mr. Naper's buckwheat crop was a 
bountiful one, and in the autumn drew to the 
place countless numbers of prairie chickens to 
get a taste of the kind of food then so new to 
them. 

The Naper and Scott settlements, being as 
they were in such close proximity to each 
other, with a reciprocity of interest in all mat- 
ters pertaining to the welfare of newly-settled 
countries, began in September following the 
arrival of the Naper colony, to lay plans for 
the education of their children. To this end, 
preparations were made to build a schoolhouse 
which should accommodate both settlements, 
and the following subscription paper was drawn 
up by John Murray, father of our present 
County Judge, to obtain support for and to es- 
tablish the school. 

The original document is now in possession 



of William Naper, now a clerk in Messrs. Scott 

& Co.'s dry goods store (son of Joseph Naper, 

deceased): 

September 14, 1831. 

We, the undersigned, whose names are hereto 
affixed, do agree to hire Lester Peet to teach a school 
in our respective district for the term of four 
months, for the consideration of $12 per month. 
Said teacher doth agree, on his part, to teach a 
regular English school, teaching spelling, writing, 
arithmetic and English grammar, if required. And 
the understanding is, that said teacher is to board 
with the scholars. School is to commence by the 
loth of November next. 

N. B. — Each subscriber doth agree to pay his 
proportionable part of the teacher's wages, accord- 
ing to the number of scholars that he subscribes for 
or sends, and it is likewise understood that Joseph 
Naper, Christopher Paine and Bailey Hobson be 
and are a committee to superintend said school, 
and to see that there is a suitable house built in due 
season, etc. 

Joseph Naper, six scholars; H. T. Wilson, two 
scholars ; Richard Sweet, two scholars ; Daniel 
Landon, one scholar ; James Green, one scholar ; 
Bailey Hobson, one scholar ; John Naper, one 
scholar; John Manning, one scholar; Daniel Wilson, 
one scholar ; Christopher Paine, three scholars ; 
John Murray, two scholars; Edward A. Rogers, one 
scholar. 

Ere this school had been established, both 
the Naper and Scott settlements had been re- 
enforced by new arrivals, as appears from such 
names not mentioned in the history found among 
the subscribers to support the school. 

But ere we proceed, let us give to the Napers 
an historic recognition of their many worthy 
traits of character. 

Joseph Naper, the oldest of the two brothers, 
began his career as a cabin boy on a steamer 
on Lake Erie. In this occupation he was con- 
tinually exposed to danger, which accounts for 
the bold and daring resolution which character- 
ized him throughout his life. He remained on 
the lakes till he rose to the distinction of Cap- 
tain of a steamer on Lake Erie which plied be- 
tween Buffalo and Detroit from 1828 to 1830. 
As has already been told, he came to the Du Page 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



31 



in 1831, and here he soon established a repu- 
tation as a generous benefactor to all who came 
within the reach of his liberality. He donated 
land to all who wished to come to the place 
and build on it, and to those who owed him 
debts which could not be paid without distress, 
he always extended clemency, and sometimes 
forgave the debt entirely. 

John Naper was also a sailor in his tender 
years like his older brother, and as soon as he 
was old enough commanded sailing vessels on 
Lake Erie, and remained in this employment 
till 1830. The two were in partnership together 
in their Du Page colony, bringing with them 
to the place the ironwork for the saw-mill to 
be erected here, and also a stock of goods with 
which to open trade. Whatever may be said 
of the oldest brother as to both his courage and 
generosit}', may also be said of John, " and," 
says Judge Murray, " the latter (John) had more 
dash than his older brother. His weight was 
about 200 pounds, his limbs muscular, and his 
whole frame almost as elastic as a circus tum- 
bler." 

Mr. P. F. W. Peek, afterward well known in 
Chicago, came to the Du Page a few weeks 
after the arrival of the Napers, and formed a 
partnership with them in storekeeping, which 
was the first establishment of the kind in the 
country around. The Sauk war, which followed 
the next year, discouraged Mr. Peck, and the 
partnership between him and the Napers was 
dissolved by mutual consent, the latter giving 
to Mr. Peck three lots, each 80x165 feet, on 
South Water street, Chicago, for his interest in 
the store. It was not without misgiving that 
this otfer was accepted, but it laid the founda- 
tion for the princely fortune which he ultimately 
amassed. 

From Judge Murray, also, the writer has 
learned of the versatile and useful talents of 
Christopher Paine which are worthy of record, 
inasmuch as he was a remarkable representa- 
tive of pioneer ingenuity. 



To him the whole settlement looked for de- 
vising ways and means to accomplish ends. 
Mr. Naper set about building a mill in the au- 
tumn of 1831, and to Mr. Paine was confided 
the building of the dam. This he did by first 
laying logs, next stone and after these the 
buckwheat straw from the ground sowed in the 
summer to help hold the dirt in its place when 
laid on the logs and stone. The dam served 
its purpose, and in the spring of 1832 Mr. Na- 
per's mill — the first ever built in Du Page 
River — was in running order. 

A grist-mill was needed perhaps more than 
a saw-mill, and Hawley conceived the idea of 
building it. But how to get the mill stones — 
•'that was the rub." He laid the case before 
Mr. Paine. He scratched his head and " his 
jaws wagged with increased rapidity while 
he kept up an incessant expectoration," (says 
Mr. Murray), and exclaimed "By Jinks, I can 
make them " (the stones). He then selected two 
good bowlders from the grove, and hammered 
and pecked on them till he had fashioned them 
into upper and nether mill stones. 

The stone chisels to do this were probably 
made by Isaac Blodgett, who was a blacksmith 
in the Scott settlement, of whom mention has 
already been made. The mill was a success. 
It was propelled by ox power, by means of a 
sweep. Each neighbor brought his grain to it 
and ground it with his own team. 

As to the toll, no one now knows how it was 
paid. Probably it was a free mill, but without 
doubt Mr. Paine was rewarded for the service 
he had rendered the neighborhood. 

The same year he introduced the culture of 
flax, and made the necessary machinery — the 
spinning wheel and loom — with which to make 
it into cloth. His wife, not less ingenious than 
her husband, spun the flax and wove it into a 
handsome cloth, coloring a part of the yarn or 
thread, and weaving into the fabric a bright 
plaid check. Of this cloth she made suits for the 
whole family, including herself and her husband. 



32 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



They were the admiration of the neighbor- 
hood, but they were thought to be rather cool 
for winter, though Mr. Paine at that season 
wore a warm buckskin sack, tanned and made 
by himself, from beneath which the check 
linen vest showed conspicuously, and is still 
remembered by the old settlers of Naperville. 
Mr. Paine was a model of generosity. "Would 
divide his last potato," says Judge Murray, 
"with any one in need." In the fall of 1832, he 
sold out and settled on the Fox River at the 
present site of Batavia, where he was subse- 
quently bought out by Judge Wilson. He 
then went to Geneva Lake, Wis., where he 
started a saw mill. From thence, after again 
selling out, he went to Duck Creek, Wis., and 
again built a saw mill. Here he remained, 
still dispensing his utilitarian labors with a 
generous hand, till he died, respected bj* all 
who knew him. Returning again to the Naper 
settlement, the severity of the winter of 1830- 
31 should not be left without a record. Snow 
fell to an average depth of four feet, and the 
cold was intense from November till April, 
with but little cessation. The wild turkeys all 
died for want of forage ; and, up to that time, 
the country was full of wild hogs bred from 
those left by the garrison when Fort Dearborn 
was abandoned in 1812. These all died also, 
for they could not penetrate the deep snow for 
acorns in the groves, and the last one starved 
to death. 

The deer fared better because they could live 
on browse, but many of them died also. Mr. 
Willard Scott, banker in Naperville, the son of 
Stephen J., is the authority for the above ; and 
further states that for the next four years suc- 
ceeding the winter of 1830-31, he had often 
passed from the Desplaines River through Mud 
Lake into the Chicago River with the barges 
of the American Fur Company. 

John Baptiste Beaubien was their agent 
there at that time, to whom some of the In- 
dians brought their furs to sell, packed on the 



backs of ponies, but most of them sold their 
furs to the traders, who had transient stations 
throughout the country. Bernardus Lawton 
was one of these traders, whose station was at 
Plainfield, but his headquarters were at Chi- 
cago. David Lawton lived on the Desplaines, 
where he kept a tavern at the present site 
of Riverside from previous to 1830 till his 
death. Both were highly esteemed alike b}- 
whites and Indians. Says Mr. Scott : " Ber- 
nardus had an Indian wife, who was a sensible 
and discreet woman, who ever enjoyed the con- 
fidence of her husband." 

From the very first the Pottawatomies, who 
were frequently at the Naper settlement, had 
always been friendly, and highly esteemed Mr. 
Scott, with whom their acquaintance had been 
of several years' duration, and likewise held the 
Naper brothers in like favor, though their ac- 
quaintance had been shorter. The same may 
be said with regard to all the old settlers with 
whom the writer has conversed, all of whom 
speak kindly of the Pottawatomies. Wuj' 
should they not ? They had settled on land 
that the Indians never had sold, and the}- made 
no attempt to molest them, but treated them 
with kindness. 

In speaking of an interview with the In- 
dians, says Mrs. Hobson : " The Pottawatomies 
frequently called at our house, and were always 
friendly up to the spring of 1832, when strange 
appearances began to be manifest. On one 
occasion, three Indians came to her house 
when no one but her two youngest children 
were with her. Two of them seemed friendly 
as usual, but the third betrayed himself to be 
of a strange tribe, and wore a rueful counte- 
nance. He would not eat of the food she 
placed before the visitors, which behavior, so 
eccentric in an Indian, boded no good intent. 
Besides this, she plainly saw that it required 
an effort on the part of the two friendly Potta- 
watomies to prevent an outbreak on the spot." 

When the three left, she saw him conceal a 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



33 



carving knife under his blanket, with which she 
had been cutting off some dried beef for her 
visitors, and, as they were departing, she in- 
formed the two friendly Indians of the theft. 
They promptly took the knife from the culprit, 
and restored it to Mrs. Hobson, meanwhile 
evidently rebuking the faithless vagabond for 
his perfidy ; and, at the same time, apologizing 
to Mrs. Hobson by repeating to her " me-o-net ' 
— no good Indian, pointing to the stranger. 

He was doubtless a Sauk, who had come 
among the Pottawatomies to influence them to 
take up the hatchet against the whites. 

Two days after this adventure at the house 
of Mrs. Hobson, the real alarm came. 

Its incidents are so well told in Richmond & 
Vallette's Early History, that their relation of 
it has been transferred to these columns by 
permission of Col. Henry Vallette : 

" Never was a ' good time come ' hailed with 
more gladness than was the spring of 1832 by 
the infant colon}-. A prospect of reward for 
past hardships was before them. All was busy 
preparation for the approaching seed time. The 
labor of breaking and fencing went briskly for- 
ward, and in due time the new-fledged grain 
came peering from the mellow ground. But 
long before the growing fields stood ready for 
the sickle of the glad harvester, the little band 
were obliged to relinquish their cherished antici- 
pations, and flee from their new homes for the 
safety of their lives. 

" The news of the breaking-out of the Black 
Hawk war caused great excitement in the settle- 
ment, and the alarm was heightened by the 
arrival of Shata, an express from the Pottawat- 
omies, who were friendly to the whites, with 
the intelligence that a party of Sac Indians 
were committing depredations among the set- 
tlers on Fox River, some ten miles distant, and 
that the houses of Cunningham and Hollenback 
had been burned to the ground, and their prop- 
erty entirely destroyed. Aware of their ina- 
bility to carry on a successful warfare with the 



Indians, as the colony was in an almost defense- 
less state, and, being liable to an attack from 
them at any moment, the settlers decided to 
send their families, with all possible haste, to 
Chicago, where old Fort Dearborn offered its 
protection to 'any fearing the incursions of the 
savages. The settlement was now the scene of 
universal disorder and alarm. Bustle and con- 
fusion were the order of the hour. Men were 
hurrying to and fro in eager pursuit of their 
wives and children, while weeping wives and 
crying children were hurrying with equal ra- 
pidity and greater anxiety in pursuit of their 
husbands and fathers. Order was at length, in 
some degree, restored, and while the women 
were engaged in packing such articles of cloth- 
ing and provision as they would require for the 
journey, the men were actively fitting out teams 
to convey them awa\\ 

" Early in the afternoon of the 18th of May, 
the train started for Chicago. But the family 
of Christopher Paine, who lived near the place 
of S. & D. Babbitt, consisting of his wife and 
six children, were, in the general confusion in- 
cident to their hast}' departure, left behind. 
The family were sent in advance of the train, 
with directions to wait at a short distance from 
the settlement for its arrival. Concealing them- 
selves in a thicket bj- the roadside, near the 
farm now owned by Capt. John Sargent, and 
not hearing the company as it passed, they 
were obliged to remain in their place of con- 
cealment during the night, which must have 
been one of fearful anxiety to the mother, as 
the imaginative dangers of her situation mag- 
nified, while watching over her houseless and 
defenseless children. Thej' returned in safety 
to the settlement next morning, but much ex- 
hausted by fatigue and hunger. 

" The following incidents relating to the alarm 
and sudden flight of Mr. Hobson's family, have 
been kindly furnished by one of its members. 
Mr. Hobson. with Mr. Paine and son, had just 
seated themselves at their noonday meal, relat- 



34 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



ing, in the meantime, the intelligence they had 
received while working in the field ; that a band 
of Indians were advancing, and were then only 
thirty miles distant, when the}- were suddenly 
interrupted by the appearance of Paine's eldest 
son, who rushed into the house, bareheaded and 
breathless, informing them that Specie and 
Ament had just arrived from the Au Sable 
grove, having run their horses down, and per. 
formed a part of the journey on foot, to bring 
the alarming intelligence that a body of Indians 
had that morning passed through Hollenback's 
Grove, killing several settlers, and burning every 
thing in their path. Upon this intelligence, 
immediate preparations for safety were consid- 
ered expedient. Hobson and Paine arose from 
the table, leaving the dinner uutasted. Mr. 
Paine, accompanied by his sons, started in great 
haste for their home, while Mr. Hobson pre- 
pared to ride up to the Naper settlement to see 
what the inhabitants there had concluded to 
do, but his wife and children, clinging to him, 
begged him not to leave them ; whereupon he 
saddled the horses, and after seeing the wife 
and children all mounted, except the eldest son 
who was to accompany them on foot, they started 
together. They directed their course through 
the east end of the grove, and coming upon a 
rise of ground, beheld a man on horseback, about 
a mile distant. It immediately occurred to Mr- 
Hobson that this was an Indian sp}-, but it 
proved to be one of a small party of scouts sent 
out from the settlement. He, however, directed 
his wife and children to hasten out of sight. 
They rode into the grove and dismounted. Mr- 
Hobson came up soon after, threw the saddles 
into a thicket, turned the horses into a neigh- 
boring field, and made all possible haste to se- 
crete his family ; directing them to use every 
precaution to evade pursuit, and not to tangle 
nor bruise the grass and weeds as they went 
along. Having done this, his attention was 
next directed to his clog, a faithful and valuable 
animal. ' You have been,' said he, ' my com- 



panion and protector for years ; you have never 
been unfaithful to a trust, nor given me cause 
to question your fidelity — always the first to 
welcome, foremost to defend. But now you 
ma}- betray us, and, saddening as the thought 
may be, I must be reconciled to the thought of 
putting you to death.' So, taking the unsuspect- 
ing victim, he went to a cabin near by, which 
had been but recently occupied by the family 
of Mr. Seth Wescott, his object being to pro- 
cure an ax with which to do the deed at which 
his very soul shuddered. It was supposed that 
the famity of Mr. Wescott had received the 
alarm, and fled. What then was his surprise 
to meet him at the threshold of his door, with 
gun in hand, just starting out on a hunting ex- 
pedition. At Mr. Hobson's solicitation, the 
dog was shot ; but he died not, as many pass 
from life, without a tear to consecrate the event, 
or a heart to embalm the memory of the de- 
parted soul — his loss was sincerely lamented. 
Mr. Wescott made immediate preparation to 
join the settlers, and Mr. Hobson, fearing that 
the report of the gun might have alarmed his 
family, hastened to meet them. Accompanied 
by his wife, he then returned to the house to 
make preparations, in case it should become 
necessaiy for them to desert their home. The 
box had been removed from the wagon, but 
with his wife's assistance he was enabled to re- 
place it, and after completing their arrange- 
ments, thej- again set forth, Mrs. Hobson with 
some food to seek her children in the grove 
while her husband went to the settlement to 
see what preparations were being made there. 
On his arrival he found that the families, with 
a part of the men, had gone to Chicago. He 
informed those that remained of the condition 
of his family, and of his anxiety that they should 
set out that night, in hopes of overtaking the 
advance party. Capt. Naper, Lieut. King, and 
Specie volunteered to return with him to the 
place where he had concealed his family. They 
were all mounted except King, who was on 




JCJ, (^/^Z^U^C fc/^^£<4> 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



35 



foot. Having found the family in their hiding 
place, it was a matter that required considerable 
mathematical skill to determine how they were 
to be conveyed. It was at length decided that 
the two eldest children should be placed on the 
horse of Mr. Hobson ; that Capt. Naper should 
take two more on the horse with him ; and that 
Mrs. Hobson, assisted by King, should go on 
foot, earryinsr the youngest child, then two years 
old. They pressed on toward the north end of 
the grove, where Mr. Hobson had agreed to 
meet them with his team. Emerging from the 
grove they had yet half a mile to go, and Mrs. 
Hobson being fatigued from the journe} - , one of 
the children was taken from Capt. Naper's horse 
and placed on the horse with the two others, 
while Mrs. Hobson mounted behind Capt. Na- 
per. They started again, one horse carrying 
Capt. Naper, with his huge Kentucky rifle, to- 
gether with Mrs. Hobson, one child, and sundry 
and divers trappings. It is supposed that the 
gallant Captain never presented a more formid- 
able appearance than he did while riding along 
on that memorable occasion, with his burnished 
steel glistening in the moonbeams, although he 
has. since that day, been the hero of at least 
three decisive battles. 

" They arrived in safety at the place appointed 
to meet Mr. Hobson, who soon came up with 
his oxen and wagon, bringing with him such 
things from the house as he could hastiby pick 
up in the dark. The announcement of " all 
aboard " soon followed. Mr. Hobson gave up 
his horse to Mr. King, who returned with Capt. 
Naper to the settlement, while the vehicle con- 
taining the family moved on its slow and weary 
way. The night was cold, and rendered still 
more uncomfortable by a heavj* fall of rain ; 
but wet and cold are of minor consideration 
when compared with the horrors of an excited 
imagination, which transforms every tree and 
shrub into a merciless Indian foe, with toma- 
hawk and scalping knife in hand, ready to com- 
mit their deeds of cruelt}' and slaughter. Pass- 



ing a night of the most intense fear and anxiety, 
the}- arrived at Brush Hill at sunrise. Crossing 
the O'Plain, they found a habitation, the only 
one on the whole route. They journeyed on 
and soon reached the " Big Prairie," the distance 
across which is about ten miles. Crossing this 
prairie was the most tedious part of the way. 
The wheels, during a greater part of the dis- 
tance, were half imbedded in the marshy soil, 
rendering it almost impossible for the team to 
move on, even with an einpty wagon. The chil- 
dren became sickened from exposure and thirst. 
Being unprovided with a drinking vessel, Mrs. 
Hobson frequently took the shoe from her foot 
and dipped the muddy water from the pools by 
the roadside, which they drank with much ap- 
parent satisfaction. They plodded on at a slow 
pace, and reached their destination at a little 
before sunset, much exhausted by hunger and 
fatigue, neither Mr. nor Mrs. Hobson having 
tasted food for more than thirty-six hours. 
They were safely quartered in Fort Dearborn, 
and here we leave them, and return to the 
settlement. 

" Some fifteen or twenty men remained be- 
hind, when the settlement was abandoned by 
the families, in order to protect, if possible, their 
dwellings and other property, from the depreda- 
tions of the Indians, should they come to de- 
stroy them. They quartered themselves in the 
log house of Capt. Naper, and kept vigilant 
guard during the night. On the following 
morning the settlers were visited by Lawton, an 
Indian trader, living on the O'Plain, in company 
with three Indians and a half-breed, named 
Burrasaw. They brought no news, but came 
to gather further particulars in relation to the 
threatened invasion of the Sacs. As the set- 
tlers had heard nothing of their movements 
since the departure of Shata's express, it was 
resolved that a party, joined by Lawton and the 
three Indians, should go to the camp of the Pot- 
tawatomies. near the Big Woods, some ten 
miles distant, for information. Two men, 



36 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



named Brown and Murphy, had been placed on 
patrol that morning, and were out on the 
prairie, a little west of the settlement. The 
party setting out for the Big Woods determined 
to test their courage, and for that purpose, sent 
the three Indians in advance of the main party. 
As soon as the Indians came in sight of the 
patrol, they gave a most terrific war-whoop, and 
darted on after them with the fleetness of so 
many arrows. The patrol, seized with sudden 
consternation, sprang to their horses and fled in 
the wildest dismay — first toward the north, but 
being intercepted by some of the company, 
whom they took to be savages, they wheeled 
and took an opposite direction. In this course 
they were again intercepted by the three In- 
dians. Concluding they must be surrounded, 
they came to a halt, laid down their arms, and 
were about to sue for mercy, when they chanced 
to discover in the features of their vengeful 
pursuers a striking likeness to those they had 
left at the settlement. The fact soon dawned 
upon them that they had been successfully 
hoaxed, and their duties ' on guard ' terminated 
with that adventure. 

'' The company advanced toward the Big 
Woods. As they drew near the timber, an In- 
dian was observed mounted on a hoi - se, who, on 
seeing them, turned and fled. The three In- 
dians made instant pursuit ; overtaking him 
before he had gone far, they made themselves 
known as friends, and detained him until the 
company came up. Lawton understood the 
dialects of several Indian tribes, and in a con- 
versation with him ascertained that he belonged 
to the Pottawatouiies, who were encamped only 
three miles distant. The Indian said the whole 
of his tribe were drunk, and it would be danger- 
ous for the company to visit them. However, 
after brief consultation, they decided to pro- 
ceed to the encampment, and the captured In- 
dian led the way. Although the appearance of 
the company in the camp caused some little ex- 
citement among that portion of the tribe who 



were sufficiently sober to entertain an emotion 
of any kind, yet they were received with no ap- 
parent indications of hostility. On examination, 
the testimony of the Indian was full} - substan- 
tiated. Indians were found in a state of beastly 
intoxication in even' part of the camp; while 
others were enjoying the pastime in the most 
picturesque, amusing and fantastic series of per- 
formances that can be imagined. Dancing, 
singing, whooping and screeching, delightfully 
mingled, formed the grand offering which there 
went up at the shrine of bad whisky and worse 
tobacco. One fellow, who seemed to be of a 
decidedly pugnacious turn, was lying on the 
ground, face downward, with his hands secured 
behind him, Samson like, with green withes. 
Frantic with rage, he seemed to utter the most 
vehement and fearful denunciations against all 
who came near him. Upon inquiry, it was as- 
certained that the fellow had violated an im- 
portant law in their code respecting these 
orgies, which law forbids 'a brother knocking a 
brother down,' and he was suffering the penalty 
affixed. 

" The company were summoned into the 
presence of the chiefs, who gave them a friendly 
and courteous reception. A council was called, 
and Lawton and Burrasaw were admitted to the 
ring. The consultation lasted for two or three 
hours, and the ' outsiders ' were becoming rather 
impatient. An old Indian woman, known to 
Capt. Naper, while passing near him, uttered in 
his ear the word ' Puc-a-che,' which, being both 
literally and liberally interpreted, signifies 
' Be off.' And the Captain began to think it 
time to heed the advice. 

" Inquiry was made in relation to the delib- 
erations of the council, and Lawton responded, 
that 'there were 300 Sac Indians in the Black- 
berry timber, some four miles distant, and,' 
said he, ' you will see them if you wait here 
an hour.' These Indians will not fight them, 
but will " stop them by talk," if they can, from 
burning your settlement.' The Captain signi- 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



37 



fied no inclination to hold an interview with 
300 Sac Indians, but suggested the propriety 
of retreating to the settlement as soon as pos- 
sible, and sending the most valuable property 
there to Chicago. This plan received the ac- 
quiesence of all the company, and after making 
arrangements with Lawton to send an express 
to notify them of auy immediate danger from 
the Sacs, the settlers returned. The packing 
of their goods was immediately commenced. 
All the articles which were inconvenient to 
convey were lowered into a well partly dug, 
and all was soon ready for loading the wagons. 
The horses had been harnessed, and were then 
feeding at a stable some ten or fifteen rods 
from the h'ouse. Capt. Naper was in the house 
tying the corners of a quilt, which contained 
the remnant of clothing left behind by his fam- 
ily, when a man rushed wildly into the room, 
shouting at the top of his voice, " the Indians 
are upon us!" The whole company took in- 
stant alarm and with the exception of Captain 
and John Naper, beat a precipitate retreat to 
a thicket of hazel bushes, which, in those days, 
flourished in prolific exuberance on the soil 
now known as Jefferson avenue. The two 
Napers were somewhat unlike the redoutable 
Mr. Sparrowgrass, who was proue to pull trig- 
ger and make inquiries afterward. They de- 
cided that inquiry should take the precedence, 
and if it came to that, why they could run 

sunn . 

"As the horses were near, they removed the 
harness and put on the saddles, that they 
might be in readiness in case of emergency. 
They had scarcely accomplished this, when 
Alanson Sweet came galloping up on his fierce 
charger, exhorting them to instant flight, if 
they valued their lives. ' There are at least 
500 Indians upon us, 7 said he, ' and they are 
not more than fifteen rods off.' Alanson rode 
away, but the Napers resolved to investigate. 
They walked in the direction from which Sweet 
said the Indians were approaching, and soon 



came upon a rise of ground which had con- 
cealed the Indians from view, when lo ! the 
dusky visage of their friend Lawton appeared 
before them. He was at the head of about 
fifty brawny Pottawatomies, and had come to 
warn the settlers of immediate danger. Mes- 
sengers were sent out to gather in the fugitives, 
that all might listen to Lawton's story. He 
said that at least sixteen of the Sacs, and how 
many more he did not know, had crossed Fox 
River ; that the Pottawatomies could not stop 
them. They were determined to attack the 
settlements, and their ' talk ' could not pre- 
vent them. The settlers, upon this, abandoned 
all idea of saving their property, but deter- 
mined to make every effort to save the wife 
and children of Paine, who were still in the 
settlement. The horses were attached to a 
light covered wagon, in which the family was 
placed, and the whole company set out that 
night for Chicago. John Naper insisted upon 
going on foot, and divested himself of every- 
thing in the shape of attire, except his shirt 
and pantaloons. He was earnestly entreated 
to ride, but upon his assuring the party that 
' he could outrun any Sac Indian in the na- 
tion," further importunity was deemed useless. 
They reached the O'Plain, and encamped for 
the night without taking their horses from the 
wagon, that they might be ready to move on 
at a moment's warning. They had hastened 
on, through fear of being cut off on the north- 
ern trail by the Indians, and being much worn 
with fatigue, all hands slept pretty soundly till 
next morning. The journey was then resumed, 
and the party arrived at Chicago before noon, 
on the 20th day of May. A company of twen- 
ty-five men was raised during the day, to re- 
turn to the settlement. It consisted chiefly of 
settlers, accompanied by Capt. Brown and Col. 
Hamilton. They started on Saturday, May 21, 
and passed the night at Lawton's. Next day 
they went on to the settlement, where they 
found everything undisturbed. Leaving the 



38 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



settlement under the guardianship of several 
friendly Indians, the company proceeded to 
Plainfield, where they found the settlers safely 
quartered in a fort, which they had just com- 
pleted. They then started for Holderman's 
Grove, to ascertain the condition of the settlers 
there. Meeting Cunningham and Hollenback 
on the way, the}' were informed that it would 
be of no use to go farther, as their property 
had been destroyed. Notwithstanding, they 
proceeded to Holderman's Grove. From this 
place they sent an express to Ottawa, to notify 
the settlers of the safety of their property, and 
also sent a messenger to Chicago to apprise 
their friends of their own safety. The party 
remained at Holderman's house during the 
night. Early next morning the express re- 
turned from Ottawa, bringing the intelligence 
of the massacre at Indian Creek. The party 
immediately went to Ottawa, and thence pro- 
ceeded to the scene of the bloody tragedy. 
What they there witnessed was too appalling 
to be described. Not less than fifteen bodies, 
of men, women and children were lying there, 
cut and mangled in the most shocking manner. 
It was ascertained that they were the families 
of Messrs. Hall, Davis and Pettigrew, and that 
two daughters of the Hall family, Silvia and 
Rachel, the one about seventeen and the other 
about fifteen years old, were carried off as pris- 
oners. The party of Indians immediately re- 
treated into the Winnebago country, up Rock 
River, carrying the scalps of the slain and 
their prisoners with them. 'Indian wars are 
wars of a past age. They have always been 
characterized by the same ferocity and cruelty. 
To desbribe this massacre is only to repeat 
what has been written a hundred times ; but a 
brief account of it may not be deemed inap- 
propriate in this place. The Indians were 
about seventy in number. They approached 
the house, in which the three families were as- 
sembled, in the daytime. They entered it 
suddenly, but with little notice. Some of the 



inmates were immediately shot down with 
rifles, others were pierced through with spears 
or dispatched with the tomahawk. The In- 
dians afterward related, with an infernal glee, 
how the women had squeaked like geese when 
they were run through the body with spears, or 
felt the sharp tomahawk entering their heads. All 
the victims were carefully scalped, their bodies 
shockingly mutilated ; the little children were 
chopped to pieces with axes, and the bodies of 
the women were suspended by the feet from 
the walls of the houses. The young women 
prisoners were hurried, by forced marches, be- 
yond the reach of pursuit. After a long and 
fatiguing journey with their Indian conductors, 
through a wilderness country, with but little to 
eat, and being subject to a varietj- of fortune, 
they were at last purchased by the chiefs of 
the Winnebagoes, employed by Mr. Gratiot for 
that purpose, with $2,000, in horses, wampum 
and trinkets, and were returned in safety to 
their friends.' 

" The company assisted in burying the dead 
and returned with sad hearts to Ottawa. There 
they found Col. Stillman's command, consisting 
of about two hundred men, under Col. John- 
son. The settlers, or Capt. Rrown's company, 
as it was called, encamped on the north side of 
the river, near where the city of Ottawa now 
stands. Capt. Brown's company being so small, 
he requested Col. Johnson to send an escort 
with his party to Chicago, as it was expected 
that the}' would be attacked by Indians on their 
return. Col. Johnson refused to send men for 
that purpose, but paraded his company and 
called for volunteers. Maj. Bailey and twelve 
privates volunteered to go. But the company 
being still very small, Col. Johnson agreed to 
send a detachment up the river and meet Maj. 
Brown's company at Green's mill. Upon this 
assurance, the settlers left Ottawa and followed 
the river up as far as Green's, but no tidings 
came to them of Col. Johnson's detachment. 
Returning to Holderman's Grove, they found 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



39 



everything laid waste. The settlement there 
was a scene of complete devastation and ruin. 
They proceeded to Plainfield, and found the 
garrison in the state of great alarm, occasioned 
by the news of the massacre at Indian Creek. 
The women, who appeared the more courageous, 
provided the company with a good supper, and 
they remained there until next day. In the 
morning the settlement was abandoned, and all 
started for Chicago, except a preacher by the 
name of Paine. He refused to accompany thenii 
as he had, from some cause, conceived the no- 
tion that the settlers at Chicago had all been 
murdered. He started in the direction of Hol- 
derman's Grove, but was found murdered some 
days afterward, with one scalp torn from his 
head and another from his face. Paine was 
wont to wear a very heavy beard, which ac- 
counts for the scalp being taken from his face. 
There is a tradition of this brutal affair, which 
informs us that the Indians cut off Paine's head 
and carried it with them, supposing, from 'the 
appearance given to the face by its long beard, 
that they had killed one of the gods of the 
whites. 

" The settlers all reached Chicago the same 
day on which they left Plainfield. 

" The Scott families, which should have been 
noticed in another place, did not abandon their 
claims at the Forks, until some time after the 
inhabitants fled from the settlement. A son of 
Robinson, an Indian chief of the Pottawatomie 
tribe, was living with them, and they knew that, 
in case of actual danger from the Sacs, the boy 
would be taken away. When he was removed, 
they concluded there would be no safety in re- 
maining longer, and thereupon followed in the 
trail of their affrighted neighbors, to Fort Dear- 
born." 

The writer will here state that from Judge 
Blodgett himself he has learned that Half Day, 
a Pottawatomie chief, attended a council held 
at this time at Waubonsies village (now Au- 
rora), in which Black Hawk's emissaries were 



trying to persuade the Pottawatomies to come 
to his assistance. This they declined to do, 
advising the Sauks at the same time to aban- 
don their warlike designs, but in vain. 

Half Day then left the council and hastened 
to the house of Mr. Blodgett, warning him of 
the impending danger, when he promptly set 
about starting for Fort Dearborn with his fam- 
ily, at the same time dispatching 3'oung Henry, 
then ten years old, to the various families in 
the Scott settlement, to warn them. of the dan- 
ger, and thev all retreated together to the fort. 

This in no wise conflicts with the statement of 
Richmond and Vallette, but would go to show 
that warning to them came from a different 
messenger than the one who brought the un- 
welcome news to the Naper settlement. 

■■ Xot long after, a scouting party of twenty- 
five horsemen started for the settlement; their 
object being to ascertain whether any of the 
enemy had been there, and to look after the 
property of the settlers. This expedition was 
placed under the command of Col. Beaubien. 
They left Chicago in the morning, and at noon 
reached the O'Plain River, where they found 
Robert Kinzie, with fifty Indians under his com- 
mand. 

" An arrangement was made, by which it was 
agreed that the Indians, under Capt. Kinzie, 
should proceed by the direct trail to the settle- 
ment, and the mounted company should pro- 
ceed to the same place by way of Capt. Board- 
man's, to look after the property there. 

" It was expected that the latter party would 
arrive at the settlement some time before the 
former. Beaubien's company urged their horses 
on as fast as possible, and in a few hours ar 
rived at Ellsworth's Grove. The skirt of tim- 
ber, which then extended over nearly the whole 
area of the present village of Naperville, con- 
cealed the settlement from their view, but to 
their surprise, and we might add, to the dismay 
of some, smoke was seen rising from the place 
where Naper's house was situated. A halt was 



40 



HISTORY OF DU PAOE COUNTY. 



called, and by some of the company, most will- 
ingly obeyed. A hasty consultation followed, 
and John Naper, who was ever ready to ' don 
armor and break a lance ' in the cause of his 
friends, volunteered to ride around the point of 
timber and ascertain whether the settlement 
was in the possession of friend or foe. In case 
he could meet with friends, he was to discharge 
his rifle, to notify his waiting and anxious com- 
rades of that fact. But if foes were encoun- 
tered, he was to return immediately to the com- 
pany. His progress was watched with no small 
degree of interest, until he passed behind the 
point of timber, out of sight. Soon the reports 
of two guns were heard, and Naper did not make 
his appearance. Iu all probability he was shot, 
and the alarm among the company increased. 
There was no means of telling how numerous 
the enemy might be, nor how soon the sharp 
report of the rifle might be their own death- 
knell. 

" Two of the company, one of whom was 
mounted on a pack mule, and the other on a 
diminutive pack pony, belonging to the Ameri- 
can Fur Company, manifested considerable un- 
easiness, as they had found by actual experi- 
ence that neither of their animals was very 
remarkable for speed, and knew that in case of 
flight they must inevitably fall in the rear, and 
become an easy prey to their pursuers. They 
considered discretion as the better part of valor, 
and ' self-preservation the first law of nature,' 
and, suiting their action to the consideration, 
hobbled off toward the East Branch timber. 
They had not gone far when they were dis- 
covered by Col. Beaubien, who rode on after 
them, loudly vociferating, ' Halt ! halt !' They 
did not heed the command, but concentrated all 
their efforts to get out of his way. Beaubien 
put spurs to his horse and soon ran them down. 
Coming up to them, he drew a pistol, and, pre- 
senting it, uttered the effective condition and 
conclusion, ' You run ? By gar ! you run, me 
shoot you !' The argument was irresistible, 



and the fugitives were captured and brought 
back. R. N. Murray, who was with the com- 
pany, being well mounted, started to go and 
ascertain what had become of Naper ; but he 
had gone only a short distance when John 
made his appearance and gave the signal that 
friends were in the camp, which signal was 
greeted with a shout as joyous as an}' that ever 
broke the silence of that grove. On entering 
the settlement, it was ascertained that the In- 
dians under Capt. Kinzie had accomplished 'the 
journey before them, and had fired the two guns 
as a salute to the gallant Naper, as he rode 
fearlessly into the camp. The company had 
been out all day, and were ver} T hungry, but 
nothing could be found at the settlement in the 
way of provisions. Among the cattle feeding 
on the prairie was a fine, fat steer, belonging 
to R. M. Sweet, and it was decided that it 
should be slaughtered for their evening's re- 
past. The cattle were all very wild, and ran 
off in fright whenever they were approached, so 
that the only method of securing the young 
steer was by shooting it. The Indians being 
anxious to undertake this part of the project, 
about fifty of them were provided with rifles, 
and they sallied forth toward the place where 
the herd was feeding, capering and cutting all 
kinds of antics as they went along. As they 
approached the herd, their victim was singled 
out, and two or three shots were fired without 
taking effect. The affrighted animal ran bellow- 
ing over the field, closely pressed by his assail- 
ants, who kept up a continual fire upon him, 
until the whole round had been discharged. 

" Of the fifty shots directed toward the ani- 
mal, none proved mortal. A rifle ball, how- 
ever, more fatally lodged, sent a tremor through 
his frame, and caused him to slacken his pace. 
The chase continued for some time, when the 
animal, in attempting to cross a slough, became 
mired and was easily taken. ' War seemed a 
civil game,' compared to the uproar that fol- 
lowed the fall of this hero. And as they bore 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



41 



him upon their shoulders triumphantly into the 
camp, one would have supposed, from the infer- 
nal jelling and screeching of those Indians, 
which 

" ' Embowel'd with outrageous noise the air,' 
that Milton's deep-throated engines were again 
let loose with a certainty. They all shared the 
triumph, and each celebrated the capture of the 
steer as his own special achievement. Nothing 
could exceed the vainglorious vaporing of these 
rude sons of the forest, as they strutted about 
and exulted in the heroism of the adventure. 
The animal was properly dressed, and portions 
of the meat were prepared for supper, of which 
all partook with a good degree of relish. 

" After supper, the log store was broken open 
and found to contain, among other things, a good 
supply of the two staple articles of pioneer mer- 
chandise, viz., rum and tobacco. These were 
dealt out profusely to the Indians as a reward 
for their valorous conduct in the evening chase. 
The company remained at the settlement during 
the night. In the evening, to vary the monotony 
a little, thej" prevailed upon the Indians to get 
up a war dance. This performance, when dra- 
matically considered, is strictly tragic, but it 
must be admitted that the ' bill ' for that even- 
ing had a fair sprinkling of the comic. Scalping 
scenes and tomahawk scenes were presented in 
the most approved Indian fashion, to the infinite 
amusement of a small but ' highly respectable 
audience.' At a late hour, the whole company 
retired, each individual selecting his ' site ' with- 
out respect to the complexion of his neighbor. 

" In the morning the company under Beaubien 
arose with an impatient desire to meet the ene- 
my. They had slept off the fatigue of the pre- 
vious day, and their desire for conflict returned 
with redoubled force with the restoration of their 



bodily energies. They resolved upon committing 
havoc among the Sacs, and fearing that they 
might, in some unguarded moment, slay some of 
their friends, the Pottawatomies, by mistake, 
they went again to the old log store and procured 
a piece of cotton sheeting, which they tore into 
small strips and tied arouud the head and waist 
of each friendly Indian. Thus decorated, they 
left the party of Capt. Kinzie, and started for 
the Big "Woods. The prairies were scoured, but 
not an Indian, nor trace of an Indian, was to 
be found. 

" The company returned to the settlement 
sadly dejected at the ill success of their Quix- 
otic adventure, and started for Chicago on the 
following morning. Nothing transpired on the 
way worthy of notice, except that the company 
rode as far as Brush Hill, constantly expecting 
to suffer the inconvenience of being shot, through 
the carelessness of one of its members, a young 
man then fresh from New York City, but now 
an individual of some distinction in Chicago 
City. He accidentally discharged his piece three 
times before reaching Brush Hill. The guns were 
strapped to the saddles in a horizontal position, 
and the chances were that the young man's ran- 
dom shots would take effect, if he was allowed 
the range of the whole company much longer. 
Arriving at Brush Hill and attempting to dis- 
mount, bang ! went his gun again. This aroused 
the ire of Col. Beaubien. He could endure it no 
longer, and commanded the youth to surrender 
up his arms. This the young man stoutly re- 
fused to do, whereupon Col. Beaubien made a 
violent descent upon him, threw him down, and 
after a short struggle, succeeded in wresting the 
gun from his grasp, after which there was no 
more ■ firing on parade ' that day." 



42 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



CHAPTEE III. 



CAPT. PAINE ARRIVES AT THE NAPER SETTLEMENT— FORT PAINE BUILT— JAMES BROWN SHOT BY 
THE INDIANS— EXPEDITION TO HALF DAY'S VILLAGE— MAJ. WILLIAM WHISTLER ARRIVES 
AT FORT DEARBORN— CAPT. PAINE'S COMPANY RETURN TO DANVILLE— GEN. SCOTT AR- 
RIVES AT CHICAGO— THE CHOLERA— GEN. SCOTT ENCAMPS ON THE DESPLAINES 
—GEN. SCOTT AT FORT PAINE— GEN. SCOTT'S ARMY AT ROCK ISLAND— JOHN 
K. CLAKK— BLACK HAWK SENT TO FORTRESS MONROE— HIS DEATH 
—POLL LISTS— THE PRE-EMPTION HOUSE — CLAIMANTS— THE 
PRAIRIE SCHOONER— THE FIRST GRIST-MILL— FOWLER'S 
GRAPPLE WITH THE WOLF — THE PIONEER OF 
PIONEERS — EARLY PREACHERS. 



PENDING these excitements, Black Hawk, 
with his army, were encamped on the 
Rock River, north of Dixon, and Gen. At- 
kinson, who held chief command of the volun- 
teers, was stationed at Ottawa; and inasmuch 
as the new settlers on the Du Page had no 
means of knowing the real situation, they 
thought it no more than a prudential measure, 
warranted by the circumstances, to build a 
fort, into which the settlers might take refuge 
in case of a sudden invasion. Accordingly, 
Capt. Joseph Naper. Capt. H. Boardman and ten 
or twelve others, about the middle of June, 
started for Ottawa to get assistance from Gen. 
Atkinson to do this. He granted their request, 
and detailed Capt. Paine, of Joliet, with a com- 
pany of fifty volunteers from Danville, to assist 
in the work. These, with the company of men 
comprising the settlers on the Du Page, under 
command of Capt. Joseph Naper, soon com- 
pleted the work. 

The following is the muster-roll of the Du 
Page Company : 

Muster-roll of a company of mounted volun- 
teers in the service of the United States in de- 
fense of the northern frontier of the State of 
Illinois against the Sac and Fox Indians, from 
the County of Cook, in said State, in the year 
1832, under command of Capt. Joseph Naper. 



Joseph Naper, Captain ; Alauson Sweet, 
First Lieutenant, now living at Evanston, 111. ; 
Sherman King, Second Lieutenant, afterward a 
resident of Brush Hill, 111.; S. M. Salsbury, 
First Sergeant, dead ; John Manning, Second 
Sergeant ; Walter Stowell, Third Sergeant, 
afterward removed to Newark, 111.; John Na- 
per, Fourth Sergeant, died in Naperville ; T. E. 
Parsons, First Corporal ; Lyman Butterfield, 
Second Corporal ; Israel P. Blodgett, Third 
Corporal, dead ; Robert N. Murry, now County 
Judge of Du Page County. 

Privates— P. F. W. Peck, William Barber, 
Richard M. Sweet, John Stevens, Jr., Calvin M. 
Stowell, John Fox, Denis Clark, Caleb Foster, 
Augustine Stowell, George Fox, T. Parsons, 
Daniel Langdon, William Gault, Uriah Paine, 
John Stevens (dead), SethWescott (dead), Henry 
T. Wilson (now ninety-four years old, living at 
Wheaton), Christopher Paine, Bailey Hobson, 
Josiah H. Giddings (living in Wisconsin), Anson 
Ament, Calvin Ament, Edmund Harrison, Wil- 
lard Scott (now living in Naperville), Prez Haw- 
ley, Peter Wicoffe. 

The fort was situated on the spot now occu- 
pied by the house of Lewis Elsworth. It was a 
stockade of about 100 feet square, surrounded 
by pickets set in the ground, on two diagonal 
corners of which were two block-houses, pierced 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



43 



with port-holes so as to command the prairie 
in every direction. While constructing the 
block-house, " shakes " (clapboards or shingles) 
had to be used for covering. A quantity of 
these had already been riven out from oak tim- 
ber in Sweet's Grove, two and one-half miles dis- 
tant, and Capt, Paine detached two men with 
a team to haul them to the ground. It was 
driven by James Brown, and a young man 
named Buckley accompanied him to assist in 
loading. Arriving at the grove, they had to 
pass through a pair of bars, and Buckley 
jumped from the wagon to take them away, 
proceeding thence directly toward the pile of 
shakes. Brown drove on toward the spot, 
when, on entering the grove, he was fired on 
by a party of Indians who laid in ambush for 
the purpose of cutting off any one who might 
be so unfortunate as to cross their path. Three 
balls pierced his breast, and he fell. The 
horses, which were spirited animals, took fright. 
and, running, with great force thrust the end of 
the tongue of the wagon two or three inches 
into an oak tree. The three Indians who did 
this dastardly work now came up, scalped their 
victim, cut the horses loose from their confined 
position, mounted them and fled, two of them on 
one horse and the third on the other. 

Young Buckley, who witnessed the cruel fate 
of his companion, fled to the fort, breathless 
and stupefied with terror. On his arrival, it 
was several minutes before he could speak, but 
his blanched face and protruding tongue told 
his story in advance, all but the detail. His 
feet were bare, but he could not remember hav- 
ing pulled off his boots, which he must have 
done to lend speed to his flight. As soon as 
he could give an account of the affair, a com- 
pany of ten or twelve men well mounted started 
in pursuit. Passing by the spot where the un- 
fortunate young soldier laid still warm, but a 
lifeless corpse, they kept on the track of the 
vagabonds who had slain him. and followed 
them to a grove near the present residence of 



Judge Drummond. Night overtook them here, 
and while the pursued could flee, the pursuers 
could not follow their tracks. Thus balked of 
their purpose, the party returned, taking up the 
body of Brown on their way and conveying it 
to the fort. He was buried with the honors of 
war on a rise of ground about twenty rods from 
the fort, and subsequently his remains were re- 
moved to the cemetery at Naperville, where a 
monument perpetuates his memory. He was 
one of the Danville volunteers. 

The night after this unfortunate occurrence, 
under the impression that a large force of hos- 
tile Sauks must be not far distant, Capt. Naper 
and Alanson Sweet started for Fort Dearborn 
at Chicago to get a re-enforcement ; but Gen. 
Williams, who held command there, after con- 
ferring with his subordinate officers, instead of 
granting him the men refused, on the ground 
that he deemed it unsafe — a reply illy calcu- 
lated to re-assure the little band already there, 
and especially the two scouts who had alone 
ventured through a country supposed to be 
beset with foes. The two scouts returned to 
Fort Paine, and no further move was made till 
the 4th of July, when a scouting part}', under 
command of Capt. Boardman, consisting of 
about twenty well-mounted men, started out 
on a reconnoissance to Ament's Grove, eight 
miles below Oswego. There they encamped at 
the deserted house of Mr. Ament, who, with 
his family, had taken refuge within the walls of 
Fort Dearborn. 

During the night, rain had fallen, making 
a mold for footprints in the well-frequented 
trail that led past the place, and careful exami- 
nation the next morning revealed the tracks of 
two Indians. Of course, in the distempered 
imaginations of the raiders the}' must be 
Sauks, and they followed them about fifteen 
miles to the village of a friendly Potta- 
watomie chief. While yet a mile distant from 
the village, the figure of an Indian on top 
of one of the tents was plainly discernible, 



44 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



evidently on the watch for his pursuers. The 
place was soon gained, but all was silent as the 
grave in the deserted place. Careful exami- 
nation now traced the fugitives to the 
river bank opposite au island. Had the harm- 
less but unlucky fleers been found, they would 
have been shot at sight. This they well knew; 
and, instead of either attempting to hold a 
parley with the scouts or to run away before 
their fleet horses, stealthily climbed a tree on 
the island and concealed themselves amid its 
foliage. 

In vain their pursuers searched for their 
tracks along river bank and trail. No trace of 
them could be found, and the party returned 
to Fort Paine. Some weeks afterward, two 
friendly Pottawatomies told the story to Alex- 
ander Robinson, giving poiut to the recital by 
describing the astonishment of their pursuers 
as to the mysterious way by which their tracks 
had been concealed. 

They had circumvented White Eagle, as they 
called Mr. Scott, and that was glory enough for 
them. 

Let us now return to Fort Dearborn. Here 
fugitives from the Hickory Creek, Naper, Scott 
and Walker's Grove settlements had gathered 
into close quarters, and nearly all of them des- 
titute of food and a change of clothing. This 
would have been uo especial grievance to sav- 
ages, but to the people here assembled, who had 
been bred in the midst of plenty, nothing but 
the value which a cultured citizen places on 
life could make it endurable. 

While these fugitives were amusing them- 
selves as best they could to kill the long days 
of July, the sound of a cannon broke the si- 
lence of the morning. All eyes turned toward 
the lake, and there was an approaching sail. 
Succeeding puffs of smoke, with a corresponding 
number of reports, after brief intervals, threw 
the town into transports, and almost everybody 
flew to the beach. The vessel approached the 
mouth of the river, cast her anchor and low- 



ered her boats. Into these the soldiers leaped, 
and soon came rowing up Chicago River amidst 
the huzzas of the assembled spectators. 

This was a small command under Maj. Will- 
iam Whistler, the son of the same who had 
built the first Fort Dearborn in 1803-04. He 
came as an advance to Gen. Scott to make prep- 
arations for his arrival. Those who were shel- 
tered in the fort were required to leave it. 

For a short time, some still lingered around 
outside, but most of them returned to their 
homes, and the Naper settlement began to as- 
sume its former appearance again. Capt. 
Paine's company of volunteers left Fort Paine 
on the 10th of July, as the danger by this time 
was considered past, as it had been in reality 
long before, for Black Hawk for many days 
with his whole army had been in full retreat 
northwestwardly in Wisconsin. 

'Twas on the 8th of July, at 2 o'clock, dur- 
ing the small hours of morning, that the inhab- 
itants of Chicago were awakened by an outcry 
in the streets. Gen. Scott's army had arrived 
at the place and his soldiers were dying with 
the cholera. When the broad light of morning 
came, says an eye-witness, hardly a resident 
was to be seen in the streets for nearly all had 
fled. Dr. De Camp, the army physician, prompt- 
ly called on those who had the courage to re- 
main to allay their fears, and to assure them 
that the disease would be confined to the garri- 
son. Indian Robinson (chief of the Pottawat- 
omies), John Miller (a tavern-keeper at the 
fort) and Benjamin Hall, at present residents of 
Wheaton, III, remained at their respective 
posts, but the town, so recently the scene of 
bustle and confusion, presented the solemnity 
of a graveyard. 

In a few days the fleers began to return, but 
kept aloof from the fort where the disease was 
making such havoc that there were scarcely 
well ones enough to take care of the sick and 
bury the dead. Ninety of the soldiers fell vic- 
-tims ere the contagion had spent its force, and 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



47 



■were buried just outside of the fort without the 
usual military honors of a soldier or even the 
civil usages of a coffin. When the last spark 
of life was supposed to be gone out, the corpse 
was hastened to the grave which was ever ready 
tn receive the victim, where stood two grave- 
diggers with immobility in their faces and 
spades in their hands to interpose a few feet of 
earth between the decaying mass of contagion 
and the living world above ground. While 
this decimating process was going on, Gen. 
Scott was in no condition to take the offensive, 
but soon the disease exhausted all the material 
on which it could work, and abated. A camp 
was then established on the Desplaines River, 
where such soldiers as were still suffering from 
the effects of cholera could recruit their strength 
preparatory to a march across the country to 
the Mississippi River. This done, Gen. Scott, 
with twelve men as a body guard, and two 
wagons drawn by horses, started across the 
country for Fort Armstrong on Rock Island ; 
Fort Paine, on the Du Page, lay on his route, 
and here he arrived on the 20th of July, about 
the middle of the afternoon, and spent the first 
night on his journey. 

He conversed very agreeably with the citi- 
zen soldiers at the fort, and started on his way 
ea iiy the next morning, taking a straight course 
for Dixon, across the open prairie, which led 
him directly across Du Page County. It is 
worthy of notice hero that Luther Nichols, a 
well-known resident of Chicago till his death 
in 1881, was one of the soldiers who accom- 
panied him. Mr. Nichols was also the last 
surviving soldier of Fort Dearborn who went 
through that fearful ordeal. The writer called 
on him but a few months before his death, and 
the following is the substance of his story, 
which verifies what has already been stated. 
He came to Chicago, with his wife and one 
child (as a soldier), in the service of the United 
Slates Infantry, under the immediate charge of 
Maj. Whistler. On their arrival, they found 



Fort Dearborn crowded with fugitives from the 
adjoining country, who had fled to the place 
for refuge from the Rlack Hawk Indians. They 
were ordered to leave at once, and obeyed the 
summons with reluctance, as their fears were 
not yet allayed from the danger of Indian scalp- 
ing parties. A few days after their arrival, 
Gen. Scott came and brought the cholera. 
Maj. Whistler then left the fort and built bar- 
racks for his men at the foot of the present 
site of Madison street. Here they remained 
during the prevalence of cholera, and assisted 
in burying the dead of Scott's army. Soon 
after Gen. Scott's arrival, several of the dead 
bodies of such soldiers as had died on the pas- 
sage (of which eighteen had been thrown into 
the lake), were driven by the winds ashore on 
the beach south of Chicago, where he (Mr. 
Nichols) with six of the company, were ordered 
to go and bury them. It was a loathsome task, 
but quickly done. Their graves were soon dug 
in the soft sands of the shore, into which their 
bodies were tumbled and hastily covered, from 
which place they have never been resurrected. 

Mr. Nichols witnessed Gen. Scott's treaty 
with the Sauks, at Rock Island, where their 
miserable remnant made their signs to relin- 
quish their homes forever. They were subdued, 
humbled, and so emaciated by hunger and hard 
marching as to look like skeletons with leath- 
ern sacks drawn over them. There was much 
carousing and hilarity among the soldiers. Mr. 
Davenport, after whom the city opposite was 
named, kept a grocery and drinking saloon in 
Rock Island, half a mile above Fort Armstrong, 
where both officers and soldiers made them- 
selves merry on whisky, which was said to be 
of a good brand, but of its quality Mr. Nichols 
could not judge from his own knowledge. 

These simple facts from the lips of this hon- 
est old man have not only an historic but a 
mural force. Had he been intemperate, like 
some of his comrades, he would not have been 
tin last survivor <;/' Fort Dearborn, lie was 



48 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



born in Otsego Count}', N. Y., in 1805 ; enlist- 
ed in the regular service in 1828 ; was honora- 
bly discharged at Fort Dearborn in the fall of 
1833, and remained in Chicago till his death, 
in 1881. After the departure of Gen. Scott on 
his way to Rock Island, the command of the 
main bod}' of the army devolved on Col. Cum- 
mings. Many of the men still lay in a feeble 
condition, encamped at the present site of Riv- 
erside on the Desplaines. In a few days, they 
were ready to take up their march, all but four 
or five soldiers. These were carried in the 
wagons, and the army started up the Desplaines 
River to the present site of May wood ; thence 
in a direct line through Gilbert's Grove on the 
Du Page. They crossed the Fox River three 
miles below where Elgin now stands. Thence 
through a Winnebago village where Beloit, 
Wis., now is. The track they made has since 
been used as a highway, and called the army 
trail, but the same trail was a well-known 
route before Scott's army traveled it. It was 
an old Indian trail from Chicago to the Winne- 
bago village where Beloit now stands, from 
time immemorial. Scott's army were ordered 
to follow it, and they obeyed to the letter, cut- 
ting a wagon road through groves where it 
led that they could easily have gone around. 

The train waited a week for dispatches at 
the Indian village, and, after these came, they 
bent their course down the Rock River to Rock 
Island. It was probably the result of the bat. 
tie of Bad Ax that turned the course of the 
army toward Rock Island instead of toward 
the locality where Black Hawk's army were 
fighting like wild beasts at bay. At the battle 
of Bad Ax, most of his men were dispatched 
to the happy hunting grounds, and many of 
their squaws and papooses also went with 
them, embarking from the fatal island in the 
Mississippi River where, from the steamer 
Black Warrior, and from the company of Capt. 
Taylor (afterward President of the United 
States), a deadly fire was kept up on them till 



the last wretch who had taken refuge there was 
killed, of whatever sex or age they might be. 

Robert N. Murray had enlisted in the serv- 
ice of Col. Cummings as teamster, to sit in one 
of the fifty wagons of which the train was 
j composed and hold the ribbons. After the 
first da} T 's ride, he run over a hornets' nest, 
which gave the teams that immediately fol- 
lowed any benefits that might result. 

The retaliation for this disturbance of their 
home was prompt and decisive, as it was indis- 
criminate, for it fell not on the teams that had 
run over them, but on those that followed. 

Maddened into fury by their stings, the horses 
ran away and broke several wagons, and two 
days' detention to make repairs was the result, 
all of which was charged to accident (?). Far- 
ther along, young Murray was promoted from 
driving the baggage wagon, to which he had 
first been assigned, to driving the carriage of 
the Colonel himseif, who held command of the 
whole train. This promotion could not have 
been the result of Murray's bold charge on the 
hornets nest, for his modesty forbade that he 
should plume himself, and he said nothing about 
it to any one till he became County Judge; 
when he revealed the reminiscence to the writ- 
er, which is hereby transferred to these columns 
as a fresh bit of history to illustrate the jocular 
spirit of the times that then prevailed. 

In the summer of 1836, Dr. Teffts, of Elgin, 
was passing the spot where this event occurred, 
and there lay in the prairie grass, the bones of 
a skeleton beside the army trail. Without doubt 
they were those of a soldier buried here during 
the detention, and dug up by the wolves after the 
train was out of sight, who, hyena-like, had 
made a hideous repast from his diseased flesh. 
These relics may now be seen in Dr. Teffts' of- 
fice. 

It may want explanation how Gen. Scott, 
while at Chicago, learned of the progress of the 
war, and the locality of the erratic combatants 
engaged in it — a knowledge so essential to him 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



49 



(the Commander-in-Chief), before any steps 
could be taken from his position at Fort Dear- 
born. To get this information, he employed a 
man acquainted with the country to go to Dix- 
on, on Rock River, which was supposed to be 
Gen. Atkinson's base. 

The name of the intrepid scout thus employed 
to communicate with Gen. Atkinson was John 
K. Clark, an early " habitant " of Chicago, still 
remembered by a few of its early settlers. His 
mother was a captive, who had been taken in 
childhood by the Shawnees from the Virginia 
frontier during Dunmore's war in 1774, and 
subsequently became the wife (after the Indian 
fashion) of John Kinzie, the founder of the city 
of Chicago (in the American sense). Clark was 
the oldest son of this discarded wife after her 
marriage to a worthy Scotch gentleman. He 
executed the mission of Gen. Scott with fidelity, 
taking along with him two half-breeds, equally 
courageous, to assist in any emergency that 
might befall him on the way. Stealthily he 
traversed the open prairie which intervened 
between Chicago and Dixon, passing through 
the northern part of the present county of 
Du Page, avoiding all trails and Indian 
lodges lest he might be captured by - emissaries 
of Black Hawk, who were then supposed to be 
prowling about for stragglers. When he re- 
turned with a message from Gen. Atkinson and 
presented it to Gen. Scott, he with his comrades 
received a liberal reward, but the two half- 
breeds tarnished their laurels by a carousal, 
and, before they recovered from the effects of 
it, died with cholera. Mr. Benjamin Hall, now 
living in Wheaton, saw them but a few minutes 
before they were taken down. 

After the arrival of Gen. Scott's army- at 
Fort Armstrong, the fifty teams accompanying 
it were sent back to Chicago, young Murray 
being one of the drivers. They had been pur- 
chased at Milan, Ohio, but were sold at Chi- 
cago on Government account for the most they 
would bring. The Indian prisoners were sent 



to Jefferson barracks just below St. Louis on 
the 9th of September. Here Black Hawk, who 
was among them, remained till April 26, 1833, 
when he was sent to Fortress Monroe, since 
which time worse men than he have been con- 
fined there. On the 4th of June following, he 
was sent back to the small relic of his tribe, 
then removed west of the Mississippi River. 
On his way, he was received with ovations in 
all the large cities through which he passed. 
Ladies of high rank flattered him with compli- 
ments, which, if anything could astonish an In- 
dian, must have been a surprise to this old 
weather-beaten warrior at the contrast pre- 
sented between the treatment he had received 
at the hands of the white men who first drove 
him from his village with no provocation, and 
the kind sympathy of these elegant ladies. 
Not to be outdone by' them in courtesy, he re- 
sponded to their pleasant words and smiles in 
as good English as he could : " Pretty Squaw, 
Pretty sqnaw." 

On returning to his country, he was restored 
to his tribe as a chief subordinate to Keokuk. 
His last days were spent in quietude, where 
his good squaw attended to his wants till death 
caused him to be 

" Admitted to that equal sky 

To which his faithful dog shall bear him company." 

This was October 3, 1S38. He was buried in 
a sitting posture, near the present village of 
Towaville, in Wapello County-. A mound six 
feet high was raised over the grave of this ill- 
starred chieftain who must ever stand recorded 
as the last native defender of the soil of the 
Northwest. Thus ended all danger from Indian 
troubles, for no fears were entertained on ac- 
count of the Pottawatomies, though still more 
numerous than the whites throughout Northern 
Illinois. 

In justice to the memory of Black Hawk, it 
should not be omitted here that according to 
the testimony of Gov. Reynolds, who was in 
the war and an eye witness, it appears that the 



50 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



first hostile shot was fired at one of Black 
Hawk's men. who was one of five to convey a 
flag of truce to the camp of the Americans. 
Two of these white-flag bearers were captured 
and killed bj- the volunteers, and Stillman's 
disgraceful defeat was the result of this affair, 
on which occasion a little handful of Indians 
gave chase to 240 volunteers, and killed 11 of 
them in revenge for their attack upon the five 
truce- bearers. 

The massacre at Indian Creek soon followed, 
which for hellish cruelty has never been ex- 
ceeded in the annals of Indian warfare. Two 
of the Indians engaged in it were supposed to 
be, and probably were veritably identified after- 
ward, and a bill for murder against them was 
found in the Court of the Grand Jury at Ottawa. 
The criminals were placed in the hands of 
George E. Walker, then County Sheriff of La 
Salle Count}' ; but as their trial was postponed 
six months, and, in the meantime, the tribe to 
which the two criminals belonged had been re- 
removed beyond the Mississippi River, Mr. 
Walker released them on their own pledge that 
they would return at the next term of court, he 
himself signing their bail. 

On the appointed daj-, in stalked the two In- 
dians with the air of their brethren when they 
sing their death song ; but, owing to the floods, 
the judge could not appear, and the court again 
adjourned over to another term. The two In- 
dians again returned to their tribe, supposing 
the matter done with. In this they were mis- 
taken. Mr. Walker was called upon to produce 
them at the next session of court, and he started 
immediately and alone across the country, 
reached the tribe, and the two criminals re- 
turned without hesitation with him ; were tried 
and acquitted for want of identification satis- 
factory to the jury. 

Mr. Walker died in 1874, at No. 34 Indiana 
avenue, Chicago, greatly esteemed b}- all who 
knew him. This information was direct from 
bis truthful lips before he died. 



During the absence of ttie settlers at Naper's 
colony, they had disturbed nothing which had 
been left behind, and when the fleers returned 
they found the warm meals that some of them 
had left on the table untasted, now worse than 
cold hash. 

The sacrifices that had been made by, the 
hasty stampede into Fort Dearborn of the 
Naper settlers, were more than offset by the 
widespread fame and notorietj' which the affair 
had given throughout the country, which soon 
began to induce emigration not only into the 
entire northern portion of the State ; and among 
the other wonders that first surprised new 
comers, was the wonder that so fertile a coun- 
trj - accessible as it was to the world outside, 
had so long remained unnoticed. 

The following poll lists are copied from the 
original documents, which are now in the hands 
of William Xaper, son of Joseph Naper. They 
are authentic records of the names of settlers 
then in and contiguous to the Naper settle- 
ment : 

A poll book of an election held in the Scott Gen- 
eral Precinct in Cook County, 111., on Monday the 
6th day of August, 1832. 

voters' names. 
Joseph Naper, P. F. W. Peek. 

Harry Boardman, Israel P. Blodgett, 

Stephen M. Salesbury, Robert Strong, 
John Manning, Walter Stowell, 

Seth Wescott, R. M Sweet, 

John Naper, Harry T. Willson, 

Pierce Hawley, Peter WycofE, 

Willard Scott, Bailey Hobson. 

Isaac Scarritt, 

At an election held at the house of Joseph Naper 
in the Scott Precinct, in the count}' of Cook and 
State of Illinois, on the 6th day of August, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
thirty-two, the following-named persons received 
the number of votes annexed to their respective 
names, for the following described offices to wit: 
Joseph Duncan had 14 votes for Representative to 

Congress. 
Jonathan H. Pugh had 2 votes for Representative to 

Congress. 
James N. Strode had 13 votes for Senator. 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



51 



James W. Stephenson had 3 votes for Senator. 

Benjamin I. Mills bad 16 votes for Representative. 

Stephen B. Forbes had 17 votes for Sheriff. 

Elijah Wentworth, Jr., had 16 votes for Coroner. 

Rufus Brown had 17 votes for County Commissioner. 

Harry Boardman had 16 votes for County Commis- 
sioner. 

Holder Sisson had 16 votes for County Commis- 
sioner. 

James Walker had 1 vote for County Commissioner. 

Certified by us, 

Joseph Naper, 
Harry Boardman, 
Stephen M. Salesbury. 

Attest: Judges of Election. 

John Manning, 1 clerks of Election. 
Setti Wescott. \ J 

A poll book of an election in the Scott General 
Precinct in Cook County, 111., on Saturday the 6th 

of October, 1832. 

voters' names. 
Daniel London, Lyman Butterfield, 

Joseph Nager, John Manning, 

Harry Boardman, Christopher Payne, 

John Murray, Peter Wycoff, 

Alanson Sweet. Caleb Foster, 

Asahel Buckley, John Naper, 

Sherman King. Pierce Hawley. 

S. M. Salesbury. 

At an election held at the house of Joseph Naper 
in the Scott General Election Precinct in the Flag- 
Creek District, in the County of Cook and State of 
Illinois, on the 6th day of October in the year of 
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty- 
two, the following-named persons received the 
number of votes annexed to their respective names, 
for the following described offices to wit: 
Stephen M. Salisbury had 10 votes for Justice of 

the Peace. 
John Murray had 2 votes for Justice of the Peace. 
John Manning had 1 vote for Justice of the Peace. 
Sherman King had 1 vote for Justice of the Peace. 
Willard Scott had 14 votes for Constable. 
William Laird had 12 votes for Constable. 
John Murray had 1 vote for Constable. 
Sherman King had 1 vote for Constable. 
Certified by us. 

Joseph Xaper, 
Harry Boardman, 
John Murray, 

Judges of Election. 



Attest : 

Alanson Sweet, > 
John Manning, 



Clerks of Election. 



Soon after the election, says Judge Blodgett, 
Henry Pomeroy, Samuel Goodericb, Hiram 
Standish and Capt. John Barber settled at what 
was at this time called the Hawley and Scott 
settlement, which by the next year was so 
much extended by new-comers as to nearly fill 
up the gap between it and the Naper settle- 
ment. 

Among this class of settlers who came after 
the Black Hawk war and became permanent res- 
idents was John Stephens, who in July, 1832, 
bought out a claim of P. F. W. Peck, a part of 
which lies within the present corporate limits 
of Naperville. He remained on it till his 
death in 1862. Philinda, his daughter, mar- 
ried William Laird the next year, 1833, and 
went to the Fox River to live. Mr, Laird died 
in 1834, when Mrs. Laird returned to her father's 
house at Naperville, where she married Hiram 
Fowler in 1844. She and her husband are now 
(1882) both living in Naperville, and from them 
the writer learned the date of the erection of 
the first hotel in Naperville, as well as being 
the first in the county of Du Page. It was the 
Pre-emption House, the frame of which was 
put up by George W. Laird, brother of William. 
He sold it to John Stephens, who partly fin- 
ished and rented it to Mr. Crocker, and subse- 
quently to Mr. Douglas, Mr. Aldrich, and lastly 
to Messrs. Munson & Webster, after which he 
sold it to Gen. Bill. 

When the frame of this old landmark was 
raised, the event was one of no small magni- 
tude in the estimation of those interested. On 
all such occasions in that day. the inevitable 
bottle is passed around at seasonable intervals, 
and it appears that on this occasion a vein of 
sentiment inspired at least one mind, and found 
vent in the following lines, which were spoken 
by Nathan Allen from the ridge pole of the 
frame when finished. 

"This place once a wilderness of savage and owls. 
Where the red man once roamed and the prairie wolf 
howled, 



52 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



This house now erected the place to adorn, 
To shelter the living and babes yet unborn. 
We'll name it " Pre-emption"— a law that's complete, 
For the use of George Laird who says he will treat." 

The author's name is not known, hut nobody 
will accuse him of plagiarism, for the lines them- 
selves were too naively put together to allow 
grounds for such a charge, painting as no other 
language could the spirit of the days of 1834 
at the Naper settlement. Michael Hines, who 
came to the place the next year (1835), arrived 
on Temple's line of stages, passing Barry's 
Point, nine miles west of Chicago, where the 
Widow Barry kept a hotel ; Lawton's, on the 
Desplaines ; Brush Hill, where Mr. Fuller kept 
a log hotel, and Richard Sweet's, a hotel one 
and a half miles east of Naperville. Says Mr- 
Hines : " The Pre-emption House was then the 
only building on the low grounds. On the ele- 
vated grounds were log houses where the Na- 
pers, Mr. Strubler, Dr. White, Dr. Potter and 
Alexander Howard, who kept the post office, 
lived. There was one store also at the time. 
Mr. Hines is now Justice of the Peace in Na- 
perville. But the country all round was filling 
up with settlers, and it may with truth be said 
that its agricultural growth was more rapid 
than its increase in trading interests, for the 
reason that the first wants of the settler were 
simplified down to his necessities, and until 
the farmers of any new country get revenues 
from their farms, their villages will improve 
slowly. 

The on]}* public surveys that had yet been 
made in the county- were of the lands south- 
east of the old Indian boundary line, which 
only took in about fifty sections in the south- 
east corner of the present county, but settlers 
could not wait for surveys. They were on the 
ground, and when they saw a piece of land that 
suited them, the}- took possession of it, or, at 
least, as much of it as they felt their ability to 
pay for when it came to be surveyed and 
brought into market by the Government. To 



define the limits of their claims, the}- plowed a 
furrow around them on prairies, and blazed the 
trees to define claim lines in the groves. The 
first claims thus made were for lands comprising 
both prairie and timber in requisite proportions; 
water also being an important consideration, 
lands on the Du Page River, or those on which 
spring's were found, were the first sought for. 
All lands of this description, for many miles 
around the Naper settlement, were under claim 
as early as 1835, but plenty of open prairie had 
not been taken possession of previous to 1839. 

The second hotel built in the Naper settle- 
ment was the New York House. It was not at 
first intended for a hotel, but for a wagon and 
blacksmith shop, for which purpose it was used 
for a year or more, when it was metamorphosed 
into a house of entertainment, by removing the 
forges which once stood where now the billiard 
table stands in this establishment, which is 
still like the Pre-emption House, one of the 
links that connect the early day to the present. 

R. N. Murray was its first proprietor. While 
the house inside had been purged of every ves- 
tige of blacksmith's cinders — honorable in their 
place, but not appropriate in a hotel, still the 
old swings for shoeing oxen outside remained 
for some years — after their mission had ended — 
there standing as a huge memento of the early 
methods of transportation by these slow, but 
faithful animals, with their cloven hoofs plated 
with iron. 

During all this time, Naperville was the cen- 
ter of attraction. Here was a saw mill, stores, 
shops and two taverns, and it was on the great 
highway that led from Chicago to Ottawa, and 
thence to Yandalia, the capital of the State. 
This road was traveled by a constant stream of 
prairie schooners, as they were called. They 
were large Pennsylvania wagons covered with 
canvas, drawn by oxen. Slowly they moved 
along, with their ponderous burdens followiug 
the beaten track over the great ocean of waving 
grass, that was omnipresent, with nothing to 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



53 



relieve its monotonous grandeur (if the ex- 
pression is admissible) but here and there a 
grove. When night overtook them, their drivers 
fed the oxen from the prairie and berthed him- 
self in the wagon after having eaten his cold 
boiled ham and corned bread, seasoned with a 
swallow from his flask (if he had not joined the 
teetotalers) to tone up his spirits with his di- 
gestion. 

Xaperville was a far-famed stopping-place 
for these travelers, and some of its early resi- 
dents have informed the writer that more than 
fifty of these " prairie schooners " anchored 
there during the season of travel every night. 
Whisky was 20 cents per gallon, and they hud 
merrj' times. Far along the verge of the grove 
their shouts rent the air. and their camp-fires 
gleamed through the darkness till a late hour- 
The teams from the West were loaded with grain 
for the Chicago market, and those from the 
East with goods to supply the necessities of 
farmers, such as salt, leather, plows and other 
indispensables. 

Besides this travel through the place, there 
was a large travel from every direction to it, to 
bring corn and wheat to a grist-mill, which 
Bailey Hobsou and Harry Boardmau had fin- 
ished in running order in 1835. This was the 
first and only one of the kind that went by water 
in a large scope of country around, and here 
the farmers came with their grists, and also took 
the occasion to do a little shopping at the stores. 

It was a great event in the place when this 
mill went into operation ; every one wished to 
help the enterprise along, and let it not be for- 
gotten that in this benevolent work Miss Lucy 
Standish made the bolt cloth, and ingeniously 
put it on the reel. She is cousin to the wife of 
Mr. F. Mather, a resident of Wheaton, and a 
true descendant of Old Cotton Mather, the great 
foe to Salem Witches. Whether Miss Standish 
is related in any way to the celebrated Miles, 
the writer cannot say. but it is certain that she 
is not his direct descendant, as he died a bache- 



lor, after an unsuccessful courtship, resulting 
from the blunder of sending an agent to do his 
courting, who won the lady on his own account, 
and left poor Miles a lonesome monument of 
the old adage, that " faint heart never won 
fair lady." Albeit the memory of Miles Stand- 
ish is embalmed in history, for his pugnacious 
feelings toward the Indians, who never commit- 
ted an offense against him. His humble name- 
sake, Miss Lucy, whose ingenuity in making 
the first bolt cloth that ever separated bran 
from flour in this county, still lives among us, 
worthy to be represented in these pages. In 
the good old times when she was in the hey- 
day of her vigor, almost everybody partook of 
the "rough and ready" spirit. If anything 
difficult or dangerous was to be done, there was 
little shirking. Nobody was afraid of soiling 
their kid gloves. It's doubtful if there was such 
a thing in the county. 

Hiram Fowler, who still lives as a resident 
of Xaperville, now far advanced in years, de- 
lights to rehearse the tales of early life there, 
and amongst other reminiscenses, has a wolf 
story, which, though familiar to his fellow-citi- 
zens, will bear printing for the benefit of those 
who have not heard him tell it. 

In 1836, his home was a mile and a half 
above Xaperville, on the bank of the Du Page, 
from which, late one afternoon, he rode to the 
town on horseback to buy some groceries. On 
his return, his dog encountered a wolf some 
distance ahead of him, and he well knew, from 
the fierce snapping and yelping, that a battle 
was going on between the two. Hastening to 
the spot, he dismounted, but he had no weapon, 
not even a stick with which he could take part 
in the evenly matched fight. But, unarmed as 
he was, he ventured to give the wolf a kick in 
the head, or rather make the attempt to, when 
the defender caught the toe of his boot, and 
cut a hole through the upper with a single 
snap, his tooth passing between two of Mr. 
Fowler's toes. 



54 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY 



Nothing daunted by the failure of this first 
charge upon the enemy, he next grappled with 
him, catching him by the hind foot and swing- 
ing him around so violently that he could not 
turn the biting end to defend himself. Mr. 
Fowler saw his advantage, hung to him with 
the grip of a giant, swinging him furiously with 
one hand, while with the other he seized the 
bridle of his horse and leaped upon his back, 
still clinging to the wolf. He now galloped to 
the home of Mr. Bird, half a mile distant, who 
came to his assistance and dispatched the wolf. 

Besides the permanent settler who plants 
himself on the soil of a new country and grows 
up with the country, is another class of men, 
of whom it may with truth be said, lose the 
end in the means to acquire that end. They 
are the incarnation of the true pioneer, and 
their love for settling on the broad face of 
nature, untarnished by the devices of clans or 
even the restraints of conventionalism, amounts 
to a passion, or, as some would say, " a hobby." 
These men are almost always generous and 
self-sacrificing, abhor technicalities and scorn 
thieves. 

They take a short cut toward what they 
consider a principle of justice, though it may 
be across fields of jurisdiction. Mr. Lewis 
Ellsworth, a well-known citizen of Naperville, 
tells the writer an anecdote as to one of these 
men, named Stout, who had made a claim on 
the west side of the East Branch of the Du 
Page, Lisle Township, Section 11. 'He had a 
large field of corn near the road where the 
travel went from the back country to Chicago, 
and it was a frequent occurrence that passers 
with loaded wagons would take corn from his 
field to bate their teams. When informed of 
this, he replied that it was all right, as he felt 
so strongly imbued with the principle of hospi- 
tality that he felt no desire to put a stop to 
what the mildest name other people would have 
given to it would be a trespass. But Mr. Stout 
came from a backwoods place in Indiana, where 



the generosity of the neighborhood would for- 
bid one to charge pay for a horse feed, and he 
could not bring himself to such a practice. 
Soon after this, there came an avalanche of 
settlers and the machinery of law and society 
was put fairly in motion. Then he left for a 
new field on which to bask in the sunshine of 
immunity from restraints. 

Those who have lived in frontier places can 
best understand the eccentricities of these men. 
The writer once knew one of them to move six 
or eight miles and build a new cabin at the 
spot because his cow had chosen her range 
there, which whim would be like the tail wag- 
ging the dog instead of the dog the tail. 
Without drawing any comparison between 
these men and Oscar Wilde, who stands at 
the other end of the pole, it is justly due to 
them to say that, with all their idiosyncracies ; 
they possess points out of which the romancer 
and the poet weaves the brightest colors into 
his fabric. Cooper's Leather Stocking was 
one of them, and Longfellow's Lover of Evan- 
geline was another. One other class of the 
early day deserves mention, anil that is the 
preacher. 

The reverend pioneer was no aesthetic. He 
rode an ambling pony from settlement to set- 
tlement, and quartered on the hospitality of 
the people as he went along, which was always 
a steadfast dependence, for no one would turn 
anybody away, especial^' a preacher. He was 
always very much at home, and, if his coat 
often wanted a few stitches to make it present- 
able to an audience, he did not hesitate to ask 
the mistress of the household whose circle he 
honored with his presence to do the necessary 
needle work. His sermons, if not elegant, 
were effective, and laid the foundation for more 
learned and perhaps more effeminate preachers 
to reap where he sowed the seed. 

Rev. S. R. Beggs was one of these early 
preachers, and has written a book relating his 
early experiences, from which the following 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



55 



quotations are taken as good authority to 
show the methods and mission of the early 
preacher. On page 91, he says: " I thanked 
him, and attended morning devotions. The 
thanks and prayers of the Methodist minister 
in those days always settled the reckoning with 
their hosts." On page 10S, continues Father 
Beggs, in 1S34 : "I was re-appointed to Des- 
plaines Mission (this included the Du Page 
country), and I returned with renewed zeal, 
which in this case was the more necessary, as 
the rage for speculation was just commencing 
among both settlers and emigrants. It was 
an earnest struggle, and it sometimes seemed 
impossible to hold the attention of the sinner 
long enough to impress him with the great 
claim which the Gospel had on him. Those 
who would not come out to church I followed 
to their houses, conversing with them on the 
highways and by the wayside. It was a doubt- 
ful struggle ; but by the help of the Lord and 
His efficient instruments — in the persons of 
Brothers Walker, E. Scarriott and F. Owens — 
I saw many souls converted and believers 



strengthened. My worldly goods 

increased, so that, if one could use the paradox, 
I was cursed with blessings. Three years be- 
fore, I owned a horse and $60, now my farm of 
240 acres was nearly paid for, and I had four 
horses, seven cows and forty hogs." 

On page 229, in speaking of Rev. Mr. See, 
Father Beggs continues : " I knew him well, and 
as a good preacher, and if he ■ got into the 
brush,' as the pioneers used to say, when one 
was at a loss how to go on with his sermon, it 
was no more than others did who made preten- 
sions to greater advantages when trying to 
preach without a manuscript, and at last did 
not get the brush cleared away after all, as did 
Father See. Indeed, I have often thought of 
the story of one of the ' regular succession,' who, 
while preaching, suddenly discovered that 'third- 
ly ' had been blown out of the window, by means 
of which he lost the thread of his ideas, and 
came to a full stop. And " (continues Father 
Beggs, in defending Mr. See from an attack 
made on him for ' slaughtering the king's En- 
glish ' ), ■' thank God, he slaughtered sin, also." 



CHAPTER IV. 



PUBLIC LAND SURVEYS— THE LAND CLAIM SYSTEM— NECESSITY FOR THE HIGHER LAW— THE BIG 
WOODS CLAIM PROTECTING SOCIETY— THE LAND PIRATE COMPANY"— LAND SPECULATORS 
—INDIAN BURYING GROUNDS— THE FOX RIVER COUNTRY"— METHOD OF GRINDING 
CORN— INDIAN VILLAGES— INDIAN AGRICULTURE— INDIAN MODES OF 
TRAVEL— THE COUNTRY NORTH, EAST AND SOUTH OF THE DU PAGE 
SETTLEMENTS— THE DU PAGE COUNTY SOCIETY FOR MU- 
TUAL PROTECTION— THE HOGNATORIAL COUNCIL. 



THE public lands of the United States are 
ordinarily surveyed into rectangular tracts. 
bounded by lines conforming to the cardinal 
points. These tracts are designated as town- 
ships, sections, half-sections, quarter-sections, 
half-quarter-sections, quarter-quarter-sections, 
and lots. They have, as nearly as may be, the 
following dimensions : A township is six miles 



square; a section is one mile square ; a half- 
section is one mile long and one-half mile wide ; 
a quarter-section is one-half mile square; a 
half-quarter-section is one-half mile north and 
south, and one-fourth mile east and west ; a 
quarter- quarter -section is one -fourth mile 
square ; a lot is one of the subdivisions of such 
part of a fractional section as is not susceptible 



56 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



of division into quartcr-quarter-sections, and 
contains, as nearly as may be, the quantity of 
a quarter-quarter-section. 

This plan of survey is called the rectangular 
system. It has been in operation since the 
latter part of the last century. Since its in- 
auguration, it has undergone modifications con- 
tributing much to its completeness. The later 
surveys are, therefore, much more systematic 
and regular than the early ones. 

In applying this system to any portion of the 
public lands, a base line, on a parallel of lati- 
tude, and a principal meridian intersecting it, 
are established as the necessities and con- 
venience of the survey may require ; and they 
are laid down and marked with great care. 
Other lines are then run corresponding to these, 
and so that the last ones are, as nearly as may 
be, six miles apart each way. 

The rectangular tracts thus formed are the 
townships, and subdivisions of these form the 
sections and fractions of sections. 

A line of townships extending north and 
south is called a range. The ranges are desig- 
nated by their number east or west of the 
principal meridian. The townships in each 
range are named by their number north or 
south of the base line. 

This will be understood by observing upon 
the map of Illinois that a principal meridian is 
laid down from the mouth of the Ohio River 
northward through the State, and that in the 
northeast corner of Washington County it in- 
tersects a base line on the parallel of thirty- 
eight and a half degrees. This principal 
meridian and base line, it will be seen, are each 
numbered both ways from the point of inter- 
section. This is the third of the established 
permanent meridians of the land survey. 
Springfield, for instance, is thus found to be in 
Township 10 north, in Range 5 west, of the 
Third Principal Meridian. 

The Fourth Principal Meridian begins at the 
mouth of the Illinois River and intersects a 



base line at Beardstown. All of the State 
west of the Illinois River, and west of the 
Third Principal Meridian northward from where 
it crosses the Illinois River, is numbered from 
this fourth meridian. The Second Principal 
Meridian extends from the Ohio River, in 
Crawford Count}', Ind., through the State. It 
intersects the base line in Orange County. The 
portion of Illinois east of Range 11 east of the 
Third Principal Meridian, north to the south 
line of Township 31, is numbered from this 
Second Principal Meridian, all the rest is num- 
bered from the Third Meridian, and Du Page 
County is included in this territory. The public 
surveys had been extended through the entire 
southern and central portions of the State of 
Illinois long before Du Page County or the 
northern part of the State had been settled, 
and on no part of the public domain of the 
wild and unsurveyed territory of the United 
States had so many complex conditions crossed 
the path of the settler as here. 

That this country had so long remained 
comparatively unknown to the world outside, 
was due to the fact that the Indian title to it had 
not been extinguished till the social antagon- 
isms of the white and red races were brought 
fac,e to face with each other, and demanded 
action to prevent violence. The Pottawatomies 
had been no idle observers of the manner by 
which their red brethren east of them had been 
driven from their lands. The}' had seen these 
tribes take up the hatchet, and though led by 
such renowned chiefs as Pontiac, Little Tur- 
tle and Tecumseh, had been vanquished and 
almost annihilated in the unequal combat that 
followed their efforts to defend their soil from 
the first inroads of the settlers. Hoping to 
avert such a calamity, they attempted to do it 
by submission, and in accordance with this 
policy never molested the settlers who came 
among them, nor could Black Hawk's emissa- 
ries with all their bravado induce them to 
change their peaceful policy. For this reason 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



57 



the Government could have no quarrel with 
them, and there was no necessity to extinguish 
their title to their lands till social influences 
under the conditions of peace as already stated 
made it essential to the best interests of both 
the red and white races to do so. This is why 
public surveys in Northern Illinois had been 
retarded so long. The consequence was that 
the settlers, in their haste to secure the best 
lands, were obliged to take possession of them 
in a state of nature, and establish the limits 
and boundaries of their farms themselves, 
which limits of course would have to be 
changed to suit the lines made by the survey- 
ors when they came to be made. To adjust 
these limits whose section lines left portions of 
two or more men's claims in one section, in- 
volved nice distinctions in the natural princi- 
ple of justice, with no precedent or rule as a 
guide. This was only one of many other com- 
plications to be solved on principles of equity 
and fair dealing growing out of land claims. 
The primary object of the settlers was to secure 
homes for themselves, while for the rights of 
the land speculator who came here to take 
possession of the land to speculate on and en- 
rich himself on its enhanced value growing out 
of their labor, the}- cared nothing. He did 
not come within the pale of this protection; on 
the contrary, he was regarded with jealousy, 
and had a thorny path to travel when he came 
in collision with their interests. 

But the foremost object of the settlers was 
to guard against " claim jumping." This was 
an attempt on the part of some interloper to 
take possession of some parcel of land within 
the limits of a claim already made. The lim- 
its were marked by a furrow in the prairie, and 
in the groves by marking the trees in a similar 
manner to the way in which public surveyors 
• blaze " their lines through the woods in tim- 
bered countries. 

To adjust all the disputes liable to grow out 
of all these circumstantial points, it was 



thought expedient to organize a society and 
appoint a committee of referees with plenary 
power to settle all issues that compromise had 
failed to harmonize between parties interested- 
To this end, on the 6th of February, 1836, 
a meeting of claim-holders was convened at 
the house of Mr. A. Culver, who lived on the 
eastern side of the Big Woods, which lies 
partly in the southeastern corner of Du Page 
County and also beyond to the west in Kane 
County. At this meeting, Dr. Levi Ward, 
Frederick Stolp, A. E. Carpenter, William J. 
Strong and Charles Sidders were appointed a 
committee for the purpose required. These 
gentlemen constituted a court of justice from 
whose decision there was in substance no ap- 
peal. Not that the}' or their constituency held 
themselves in a position of defiance to law- 
They only made a law unto themselves to pie- 
pare for an emergency for which the laws of 
the land had not made provision. They only 
protected themselves in their natural rights to 
land before it was surveyed, as the Government 
protected pre-emptors after surveys had been 
made. 

It is true that certain contingencies were lia- 
ble to come up with them not possible to pre- 
emptors of public lands, and for these contin- 
gencies they did not hesitate to provide, as the 
sequel will show ; and here the historian would 
be at default if he did not record the fact that 
in no case has the decision of this self-consti- 
tuted court been accused of injustice. The so- 
ciety formed at the house of Mr. Culver was 
called " The Big Woods Claim Protecting So- 
ciety," of which John Warne was Secretary. 
It was the first of the kiud in the couuty and 
consisted of ninety-seven members, including 
officers, all of whom, so far as tradition and 
reports go, were stalwart, justice-loving men. 
who would neither commit an offense against 
justice nor submit to one, quite a number of 
whom are still living. 

As an historic record, a list of those who first 



58 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



joined the society is inserted : John Warne, 
A. E. Carpenter, James Dyer, John Hosier, 
Joseph Fish, J. M. Warren, John Maxwell, 
Cornelius Jones, John Ogden, Phineas Giaves, 
William Hall, David Crane, James Brown, 
Frederick Stolp, Nelson Murray, Taylor S. 
Warne, Jesse B. Ketchum, Barton Eddy, David 
MeKee, J. S. P. Lord, Joseph Wilson, Warren 
Smith, Henry M. Waite, Lyman King, Luther 
Chandler, Gilbert S. Rouse, S. H. Arnold, Jos- 
eph Stolp, Reuben Austin, Charles Arnold, 
Levi Leach, Elihu Wright, Nahan Beardsley, 
S. Hurlbut, Darias J. Lamphear, Walter Ger- 
main, John B. Eddy, John Gregg, Samuel 
Mosier, Orriu W. Graves, B. Tubbs, Jr., Joseph 
Thayer, Thomson Paxton, L. Ward, Charles 
Brown, Charles Sidders, James Hymes, Nathan 
Williams, William J. Strong, Robert Hopkins, 
Jesse Graves, John Stolp, Allen Williams, A. 
Culver, Thomas N. Paxton, Dennis Clark, 
Amander P. Thomas, Alfred Churchill, R. S. 
Ostrander, A. W. Beardsley, George Laird, 
George C. Howes, Samuel Paxton, William 
Williams, George Monroe, Harvey Higbee, N. 
H. Thomas. Euos Coleman, Linus L. Coleman, 
Eli Northum, Zerah Jones, Reuben Jones, 
George S. Blackman, Blackmail & Winslow, 
William E. Bent, J. B. & E. Smith, Ira Wood- 
man, Alden S. Clifford, William Hill, John Fox, 
Nathan Williams, Alanson Arnold, Eleazer 
Blackman, Aurin Ralph, John Sidders, Russel 
Whipple, Sheffield Mills, Jonas Lamphear, Will- 
iam R. Currier, Manus Griswold, Isaac Barnes. 
These gentlemen bound themselves, in the pe- 
nal sum of $1,000 each, to protect and assist 
each other in their respective claims, as per the 
decisions of the committee they had appointed 
to represent and define their rights. 

Their meetings were to be twice a year, or 
oftener if necessary, and the next one met on 
the Gth of August, 1836, at the house of Thomas 
Paxton. This was by the provisions of their 
compact to be the date of their annual meet- 



A new committee was chosen at this meet- 
ing, consisting of William J. Strong, Thomson 
Paxton, John Gregg, Warren Smith and Fred- 
erick Stolp. At this meeting, it was made the 
duty of the Secretary to record the description 
of each claim of the different members, who were 
to give the same to him within ninety days. 
Tiie meeting was adjourned to meet again at 
the same place on the 1th of February the suc- 
ceeding year. 

As already stated, the Big Woods' Claim 
Protecting Society was the first one of its kind 
established here ; but previous to its organiza- 
tion a company of land speculators had entered 
the Big Woods, and laid claim to several sec- 
tions of its best timbered land, and for the better 
security of their lands had built a rail fence 
around it. The gentlemen composing this so- 
cietj- gloried in the name of the Land Pirate 
Company, but their piratical exploits in monop- 
olizing the timber wanted for the use of the 
settlers never achieved sufficient notoriety to be 
lionized as marine highwaymen were by Byron 
in " The Corsair," for not long after the forma- 
tion of the Big Woods Society the fence they 
had built around their claim disappeared, and 
nobody ever knew who hauled the rails away 
any more than it was known who, under the 
guise of Indian plumes and paint, only sixty 
years before this event, had went aboard the 
English ships in Boston Harbor, and emptied 
their tea chests into the sea. One of these tea 
destroyers survived till about the date of this 
Big Woods Company's birth, having in his lat- 
ter j-ears revealed his identity, and, perhaps, 
some of those who moved away the offending 
rails, by means of which it was hoped to retain 
the timber of the Big Woods, may yet tell how 
it was done, and who did it. Possibly the old 
veteran of Boston Harbor had set them up to 
the business. 

Land speculators at the time of the formation 
of this society, were almost as numerous as the 
actual settlers. The}' made a business of mark- 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



59 



ing out claims in a similai manner to settlers, 
and, after making slight improvements on them, 
selling these claims to settlers at a large profit. 
Against this grievance there was no remedy, 
for it was optional with the settler to purchase 
his claim or go farther West and make one from 
the great domain westof the Fox River, between 
which and the Rock River no claims had been 
made, except along their immediate banks. 

The land south of the Indian boundary line 
having been surveyed about the year 1 *'-Ui. came 
into market in 1835. Much of it rested under 
claims, and a collision of iuterest came up when 
the land was offered for sale at the land office 
in Chicago. Speculators began to bid on it as 
high as $10 or $15 per acre, and quite a num- 
ber of actual settlers lost the lands on which 
they had settled and made improvements : but 
the sale had not proceeded long till the claim- 
ants asserted their rights, backed up by too for- 
midable an array of force and influence for the 
speculators to set at defiance, and no more bid- 
ding on lands under a settler's claim was ven- 
tured on. The same year, in 1835, the lands 
along Fox River were partly under claims, and 
from Joseph Tefft, M. D., a present resident of 
Elgin, the writer has learned the extent of set- 
tlements from the present site of Aurora, then 
known as Waubonsie's Village, to Elgin at that 
time. 

Mr. Tefts came from Madison County, N. Y., 
and, after making a short stop at a place called 
the Yankee settlement, on the Desplaines 
River, he passed through Xapervillc. and 
thence to the Fox River, in the autumn of 
1835. Where Aurora now is, he found on the 
west bank of the river a log cabin, where Mr. 
Wilde lived on land he had claimed. On the 
east bank were some settlers also, but not 
more than two or three. Two and a half miles 
up the river was the Indian burying-ground, 
where mounds like those in our cemeteries 
were raised over graves. Here were newly - 
made graves, for the country was still occu- 



pied by a remnant of Waubonsie's subjects. 
Besides those buried in the ground was the 
body of a child, incased in birch bark, attached 
to the limb of a tree far above their reach, 
where it swung to and fro in the wind. This 
custom of depositing the remains of young 
children in trees, thus incased, was not unusual 
among the Indians. Perhaps it was to rock 
them to sleep. A Mr. McNemar then owned a 
claim at the place, including the Indian ceme- 
tery. Farther along, a man named Clybourne 
had a saw mill on a branch of the Fox River 
coming in from the west, near the present site 
of Batavia. At the present site of Geneva 
lived James Herringtou, who then kept a store 
at the place, depending on custom from settlers 
from a large radius of country around. At 
the present site of St. Charles lived Mr. Fer- 
sons, father of Reed Fersons, on the west side 
of the river. Four miles to the north lived 
Rice Fay. who came to the place the year be- 
fore, and had raised a few vegetables and some 
corn for family use. Not long afterward, Mr. 
Teffts having made a claim and settled a sh< irt 
distance above him on the river, he came to 
his cabin to buy a few potatoes, but no per- 
suasion could induce him to sell them ; but, 
just before leaving, he gave him some, in 
which respect he was not unlike many other 
pioneers. Mr. Fay had a large family, and 
ground all their cereals for bread in a coffee 
mill during the winter of 1835-36. 

Farther up, where the army trail crossed 
Fox River, lived Mr. Kendall in a log cabin on 
his claim. Above him, Ira Minard had a claim 
on the ground now occupied by the Elgin 
Insane Asylum. 

Mr. Minard, Reed Fersons and B. T. Hunt 
were the founders of St. Charles. 

At Elgin was a log cabin on the west side of 
the river where Jonathan Kimball lived, who 
was subsequently Justice of the Peace at Elgin. 
Phineas Kimball lived on the east side, imme 
diately north of the present site of the depot. 



60 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



North of him lived Ransom Olds, and the next 
who came were James T. Clifford, the founder 
of Elgin, who built a house near where Mr. Or- 
lando Davidson now lives ; Hezekiah Gifford, 
who built a house where George S. Bowen lives, 
and Dr. Tefft, who settled in South Elgin and 
now lives in Elgin. 

There had been a large Indian village be- 
tween the present city of Elgin and Dundee, 
where about three acres of laud still bore the 
marks of their rude agriculture. Similar signs 
were also apparent at South Elgin, where even 
some of the tent poles of the Indians were 
standing where their, frail tenements had but 
recently stood. 

When the inhabitants of these places changed 
their residence for a winter's hunt, or to make 
a visit to a neighboring town, sometimes they 
all went together, with the papoose baby- 
straped to a board which was lashed to the 
back of the mother. The next two oldest put 
one each into saddle-bags, and thrown across 
the back of the pony as we used to take a grist 
to mill in the olden time. The father then 
mounted the pony, and then all were ready for 
a march, the patient squaw having the hardest 
part, as she tugged the papoose along by the 
side of her lord, whose leggings her hands had 
ornamented with porcupine quills or beads. 

Fox River was then full of fish, which were 
caught by the settlers and sometimes salted 
down for table use in the winter. Bej-ond these 
beginnings on the river-bank westwardly, was 
a waste of prairie presenting no attraction to 
the settler till the Rock River was reached. 
To the north no settlements had been made till 
the vicinity of Green Bay and Fort Howard 
was reached. To the east was the mushroom 
town of Chicago, waiting the completion of the 
canal as a voucher for ultimate grandeur. Be- 
tween this germ cell of a city and the Du Page 
was first a dismal swamp, drained in its western 
verge by the Desplaines River, on the banks of 
which Mr. Barnardus Lawton had established 



a hotel that old settlers still hold in grateful 
remembrance. 

Southward of the Du Page settlement — we 
must remember that at this date of which we 
now speak, 1835, it belonged to Cook County — 
was a country settled more and more densely 
the farther one went, till he reached Edwards 
County, opposite St. Louis. 

These were the surroundings of what is now 
Du Page County, when the claimants of land here 
first put down their stakes, not to be pulled up 
again, and united their wisdom in council at 
the Big Woods, for the purpose of uniting their 
muscle, if necessary, to protect each other in 
getting deeds of the lauds which their labors 
were about to make valuable. In this there 
was no law but the higher law to protect them, 
and this they were bound to employ. That dis- 
putes, and what are called old-claim feuds, arose, 
is true, but they had their origin in the same 
misconception of the principles of justice that 
give rise to law suits now, and not in the action 
of the league. 

A society having similar objects in view as 
the Big Woods Society, was formed in Naper- 
ville October 28, 1839. It was called the Du 
Page County Society for Mutual Protection. 
For a record of. this society, we quote from 
Richmond & Vallett's History : 

Russell Whipple was called to the Chair, and 
James C. Hatch appointed Secretary. Whereupon 
the following report was read to the meeting: At 
a meeting of the settlers of Du Page County, held 
at Naperville on the 29th of September last, to take 
measures for securing their rights and interests to 
and in their respective claims, a committee of ten 
was appointed to draft rules and regulations to pre- 
sent for the consideration of this meeting, in com- 
pliance with which, said committee respectfully beg 
leave to present the following: 

Situated as we are upon Government lands, which 
have, by the industry of the settlers, already be- 
come highly valuable, and inasmuch as our claims 
lie in such a variety of shapes, and are of such dif- 
ferent dimensions that they cannot in any manner 
correspond with the Government survey, it appears 
necessary, in order to prevent the most fearful con- 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



61 



sequences, that the lines of our respective claims 
should be established previous to the Government 
survey, and we ourselves bound by the strong arm 
of the law, to reconvey, as hereinafter mentioned, 
to our neighbors, whenever these lands are sold by 
the order of the General Government, so as to keep 
our claims as they are now established; and to ac- 
complish this end, we recommend the following 
regulations: 

First. We do hereby form ourselves into a so- 
ciety, to be called the Du Page County Society for 
■ Mutual Protection, and agree to be governed by 
such prudent rules and by-laws as the society may 
hereafter adopt, not inconsistent with the laws of 
the country; and that we will make use of all hon- 
orable means to protect each other in our respective 
claims, as may hereafter be agreed upon and re- 
corded; and that we will not countenance any un- 
just claim, set up by speculators or others ; and we 
declare that the primary object of this society is to 
protect the inhabitants in their claims and bounda- 
ries, so that each shall deed and redeed to the other 
as hereinafter mentioned, when the Government 
survey does not agree with the present lines, or lines 
which may hereafter be agreed upon. 

Second. That there be a committee of five ap- 
pointed at this meeting, three of whom may form a 
board of arbitration, to decide from legal testimony, 
all disputes respecting the lines or boundaries of any 
claim to which they may be called together, with 
the costs of the arbitration, and the party or parties 
who shall pay the same: Provided, It does not ap- 
pear that such dispute has previously been decided, 
by an arbitration held by the agreement of the par- 
ties, which shall be a bar against further proceed- 
ings of said committee, except as to matter of costs. 

Third. That each of the said committee shall 
be entitled to .$1 per day, for each day official}- en- 
gaged. \ 

Fourth. That in all cases where the parties 
cannot establish their lines, either by reference to 
their neighbors or otherwise, either part}- may, at 
any time, by giving to the other ten days' notice of 
his or her intention, call out at least three of the 
board of arbitration, to decide the same, and their 
decision shall be final. 

Fifth. That there shall be one Clerk appointed 
at this meeting, who shall keep a fair record of all 
transactions of this association, and also of all de- 
scriptions of claims presented to him for record: 
Provided, That there is attached thereto a certificate 
from all who have adjoining claims, certifying to 
the correctness of such description, or a certificate 



signed by a majority of any arbitration, met to es- 
tablish any line or lines of said claim; and that the 
said Clerk shall be entitled to 25 cents for recording 
each claim and certificate. 

Sixth. That it shall be the duty of every settler 
to present to he Clerk, a definite description of his 
or her claim, either from actual survey or other- 
wise, and also to set his or her hand and seal to a 
certain indenture, drafted by Giles Spring, Esq., of 
Chicago, for this society. 

Seventh. That there be a committee of three in 
each precinct appointed at this meeting, for the pur- 
pose of carrying into effect the sixth regulation. 

Eighth. That the settlers on the school lands 
ought to obtain their lands at Government prices. 

Ninth. That we will firmly and manfully pro- 
tect all who conform to the above regulations pre- 
vious to the 1st day of January, 1840. 

Which report and regulations were unanimously 
adopted, and ordered to be embodied in a consti- 
tution. 

Thereafter, on motion, a committee of six was 
appointed by the chair, to nominate a board of ar- 
bitration and Clerk, viz., Lewis Ellsworth, Elihu 
Thayer, Luther Hatch, Cornelius Jones, Job A. 
Smith and David S. Dunning; who, having retired, 
returned and reported Lyman Meacham, Erastus 
Gary and Stephen J. Scott Board of Arbitration, and 
P. Ballingall, Clerk; which nominations were ap- 
proved of. 

Whereupon, it was moved and adopted, that the 
following persons be the precinct committee, viz. : 

Naperville Precinct — Stephen J. Scott, Henry 
Goodrich, Nathan Allen, Jr. 

Webster Precinct — John W. Walker, James C. 
Hatch, Pierce Downer. 

Deerfield Precinct— Luther Morton, Perus Barney, 
Moses Stacy. 

Washington Precinct — Lyman Meacham, Smith 
D. Pierce, Capt. E. Kinny. 

Orange Precinct — Job A. Smith, William Kim- 
ball, Luther F. Sanderson. 

DuPage Precinct — Warren Smith, Lorin G. Hul- 
bert, Alvah Fowler. 

Big Woods Precinct — John Warne, Levi Leach, 
William J. Strong. 

Besolced, That this meeting adjourn till the first 
Monday in January, 1840. 

Rossell Whipple, Chairman. 

James C. Hatch. Secretary. 

At a meeting of the "Du Page County Society 
for Mutual Protection," held at Naperville. the 6th 
day of January, A. D. 1840, in pursuance of ad- 



62 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



journment, Russell Whipple took the chair, when, 
on motion of Mr. George Martin, it was 

Resolved, That the time for recording the claims 
of the members of this society, in order to secure 
the benefits of the ninth resolution of the meeting 
held on the 28th of October last, be extended till 
the 1st da}' of March next. 

On motion of Mr. James C. Hatch, 

Resolved, That the claims belonging to members 
of this society which lie on the line of or in another 
county shall be entitled to record and protection, on 
the member complying with the fifth regulation. 

On motion of Mr. Lyman Meacham, 

Resolved, That when a claim belonging to a mem- 
ber of this association shall border on that of a non- 
resident, or that of a person out of the State, or on 
land not occupied, the same shall be recorded if a 
certificate from the adjoining claimants be attached 
thereto, certifying to such non-residence, absence or 
non-occupancy, and that there is no dispute concern- 
ing the same. 

On motion of Mr. William J. Strong, 

Resolved, That any member of this society who, 
in an arbitration, fails to establish his claim before 
the Board of Arbitration, shall pa}' the costs thereof 
within six days from the decision being pronounced, 
and failing to make such payment, he shall cease to 
be a member of this society. 

Resolved, That this meeting adjourn until the first 

Mondav in March next. 

P. Ballingall, Clerk. 

At a meeting of the society held at Naperville, on 
the 6th day of January, A. D. 1840, in pursuance 
of adjournment, Stephen J. Scott was appointed 
Chairman. 

Resolved, That James Johnson and Isaac B. Berry 
be allowed another trial in their arbitration with 
Harry T. Wilson, on condition that said Johnson 
and Berry pay one counsel fee and the whole costs 
of the arbitration. 

Resolved, That the Board of Arbitrators shall have 
power to fill all vacancies occasioned by death, re- 
moval or otherwise, between this time and the first 
Monday in May next. 

Resolved, That the resolution offered by William 
J. Strong, and passed at last meeting, be and is 
hereby repealed. 

Resolved, That the line between Ephraim Collar 
and Timothy E. Parsons is hereby declared to be 

the road leading from ■ to , laid by But- 

terfield, Church and Arnold, as the same has been 
recorded. 



Resolved, That this meeting adjourn till the first 
Monday in May next. 

P. Ballingall, Clerk. 

At a meeting of the Du Page County Society for 
Mutual Protection, held at Naperville, on Monday. 
the 4th day of May, A. D. 1840, pursuant to adjourn- 
ment, John Stevens was appointed Chairman and 
James F. Wight Clerk pro ton., when, on motion of 
Mr. P. Downer, 

Resolved, That the time for settling and recording 
claims of the members of this society lie extended to 
the first Monday in June next. 

Resolved, That this meeting adjourn to the first 
Monday in June next, then to meet at Naperville. 
J. F. Wigiit. Clerk pro tern. 

At a meeting of the Du Page County Society for 
Mutual Protection, held at Naperville, on Monday, 
the 1st day (being the first Monday) in June. 1840, 
pursuant to adjournment, Capt. John Stevens was 
appointed Chairman. 

Patrick Ballingall, Esq., having resigned the 
office of Clerk of this society, on motion of Mr. 
Hunt, 

Uesblved, That James F. Wight lie ami is hereby 
appointed Clerk of this society, in the place of P. 
Ballingall, Esq., resigned. 

Resolved. That the time for settling and recording 
claims of the members of this society be extended 
until the first Monday in September next. 

On motion of Mr. James C. Hatch, 

Resolved, That the Clerk hereafter record no cer- 
tificates of claims unless it is certified that they are 
the only claimants adjoining the claim or claims 
offered to be recorded, or, for want of such certifi- 
cate, that the applicant shall make oath that no 
other person except those named in such certificate 
adjoin him. 

Resolved, That the Clerk shall notify all persons 
whose claims are recorded (without their having 
signed the settler's bond) that they sign the said 
bond, or they will not be protected by this society. 

Resolved, That this meeting adjourn to the first 
Monday in September next, then to meet at the 
Pre-emption House, in Naperville, at 1 o'clock P. M. 
James F: Wight, Clerk. 

At a meeting of the Du Page County Society for 
Mutual Protection, held at Naperville, on Wednes- 
day, the 3d day of March, 1841, Hon. Russell Whip- 
ple was called to the Chair, and Morris Sleight ap- 
pointed Secretary. 

After the object of the meeting had been stated 
by Stephen J. Scott, the following persons were ap- 




Q). S\r-f-^tKc 



(DEC EAS ED) 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY 



65 



pointed a committee to draft resolutions expressive 
of tUe sense of this meeting, viz.: Luther Hatch, 
Stephen J. Scott, William J. Strong and Isaac 
Clark. 

On motion of N. Allen, Jr., Esq., Alymer Keith 
was appointed Clerk of this society, to record claims 
and the certificates for the same, and to keep the 
settlers' book, in place of James F. Wight. 

Resolved, That the time for recording claims be 
extended to the first Monday of September, 1841. 

The committeee appointed to draft resolutions 
reported the following, which were adopted, with 
one or two dissenting votes: 

Whereas, It is generally believed that the public 
lands on which we hold settlers' claims will be 
shortly offered for sale, and in order that each 
claimant may obtain and feel secure in the pos- 
session of his just claim, it is deemed necessary that 
there be a uniformity of action and feeling on the 
subject, and believing that the proving up of pre- 
emption claims will have a tendency to create ex- 
citement and confusion, if not to interfere with the 
rights of others; therefore be it 

Resolved, 1. That we will not prove up our pre- 
emption claims, even when justly entitled to do so, 
except in cases where it may be deemed necessary to 
secure the claimant ; but that we will not do so with- 
out the consent of a committee to be appointed by 
this union or the several towns, to settle disputes. 

Resolved, 2. Tnat any person who shall attempt 
to obtain a pre-emption, and thereby seize upon any 
part of any other person's claim, shall be deemed a 
dishonest man, not entitled to the protection of this 
union, and shall not be allowed to purchase any 
other land in this county, if this union can pre- 
vent it. 

Resolved, 3. That when the inhabitants of any 
township shall guarantee to those on the school sec- 
tion, and entitled to a float, that they shall have 
their claim at ten shillings per acre, then, in such 
case, if they shall obtain, or attempt to obtain, a 
float, or lay one upon any other claimant's just 
claim, they shall be considered no better than a 
thief or a robber, and shall have no protection from 
this union. 

Rosolved, 4. That it is the duty of this association 
to take measures to secure to claimants on the school 
section their claims at government price. 

Resolved, 5. That the protection of this union will 
not be extended to any person who shall either take 
or purchase a school section float, except the town- 
ship refuse to guarantee, as in the third resolution. 

Resolved, 6. That the several townships in this 



county call meetings, and make arrangements and 
adopt such measures as may be thought necessary 
with regard to their claims at the approaching land 
sale. 

Resolved, 7. That the proceedings of this meeting 
be forwarded by the Secretary to the land office in 
Chicago, and ask of the Register and Receiver to 
act with regard to lands in this county on the spirit 
of the resolutions here passed. 

Resolved, 8. That the proceedings of this meeting 
be signed by the Chairman and Secretary and pub- 
lished in the Chicago papers. 

Subordinate claim societies were organized 
in each of the precincts of the county ; the set- 
tlers pretty generally joined them, and many 
difficulties were adjusted by this means among 
the squatters. The hard times which followed 
the crisis of 1836 and 1837 discouraged specu- 
lation somewhat, and but fevv were able to pur- 
chase the land which they had improved, and 
some were unable to do that. The pledges 
made by the members of the claim societies 
were uniformly carried out, and all honorable 
men gave no cause of complaint to their neigh- 
bors. In a few cases some less scrupulous 
refused to deed lands in their possession to the 
rightful owner, and, in consequence, quarrels 
and some suits at law were the result. 

We subjoin a few instances, showing how 
summarily a certain class of claim difficulties 
were disposed of. Many more might be added, 
but let these suffice. 

Two neighbors owned adjoining claims, and 
at the time of the organization of the claim 
society, their land was being surveyed by the 
Government surveyor. One of the men hap- 
pened to be a member of the societj-, and the 
other, not. It so happened that the random 
line, run by the surveyor, cut off a portion of 
the claim of the first, and left it in such a man- 
ner that the other would be entitled to a pre- 
emption upon it. When he discovered this, he 
refused to deed the land to the one who claimed 
it. Persuasion was used in vain. He thought 
he had the advantage of his neighbor, and de- 
termined to keep it. In a few days, however, 

D 



66 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



matters assumed a different light, and then the 
line was established so as to give back to the 
society man not only what he claimed, but also 
a large corner from his neighbor's tract, and 
now he was entitled to a pre-emption. The ob- 
stinate man was thus induced to join the socie- 
ty, and take upon himself the obligation to 
" deed and re-deed." After being kept in sus- 
pense for awhile, by way of punishment, his 
land was again restored to him. 

There were many of the settlers who did not 
join the claim societies, but among all bona- fide 
settlers there prevailed a determination to pro- 
tect each other. The first trouble arising from 
'•claim jumping," was in 1836, or thereabouts, 
respecting the claim of a Mr. Frothingham, in 
the town of Milton. A family of squatters came 
on and took possession of a portion of his 
claim, without leave or license, and were deter- 
mined to remain there in spite of entreaty or 
physical force. The settlement was apprised 
of this state of affairs, and a company of about 
fifty horseman proceeded to the cabin of the in- 
corrigible squatters, who, on seeing them, broke 
for tall timber, leaving but one occupant in the 
cabin, an old lady who had passed the running 
point. The sum of $17 was raised among the 
company to indemnifj- the family for sundry 
outla3 - s which they had made upon the prem- 
ises. This the old lady received upon condi- 
tion that the family should quit the claim 
without delay. To expedite the execution of 
her part of the contract, the settlers fell to work 
and assisted in the removal of the furniture 
from the house, and in clearing the premises of 
everything that belonged to the family. After 
this had been done, the house was torn down 
and the rubbish thrown into a heap near by, 
preparatory to kindling a bonfire, when the 
" meeting " was called to order and several 
stump speeches, of a decidedly inflammatory 
character, were made. We are not in posses- 
sion of the minutes of those speeches, but have 
been informed that the Hou. Nathan Allen 



figured quite conspicuously in this part of the 
exercises. His speech on that occasion is 
spoken of as being one of his most felicitous 
and pointed " efforts." When the speech-mak- 
ing had subsided, fire was set to the heap of 
promiscuous ruins, and the hut of the interlop- 
ers was soon reduced to ruins. The conduct 
of the settlers in this case proved a warning to 
future intruders, and claim-jumping was rarely 
heard of in that part of the county afterward. 

A man from Plumb Grove happened to be 
on his way to the Naper settlement, and passed 
near the place while the affair just described 
was taking place. Seeing the smoke ascend 
from the spot, and hearing the universal uproar 
among the settlers, he concluded at once that a 
party of Indians was there, killing and laying 
waste. Turning from the beaten track which 
led near the house, he made a circuit around 
the " marauders," and lashing his horses to 
their utmost speed, rode to the settlement, 
warning everybody to flee for their lives. The 
cause of his fright was pretty generallj - under- 
stood, and therefore he did not succeed in get- 
ting up a very serious alarm. 

A few years after, a contention arose respect- 
ing the Tullis claim, which was situated in the 
same neighborhood. Under a pre-emption law 
passed about that time, a man by the name of 
Harmond undertook to pre-empt a portion of 
the claim of Mr. Tullis, who had already ob- 
tained possession of it under a former pre- 
emption act. In order to comply with the 
provisions of the later act, Harmond built a 
pen of small poles near the center of his claim, 
stayed in it only one night, and started immedi- 
ately for Chicago, to prove his pre-emption. On 
his return, he commenced making repairs upon 
an old block-house which was already built 
upon his " quarter," and being asked why he 
was doing it, replied that he had pre-empted 
that claim, and was going to live there. This 
aroused the indignation of the neighboring 
squatters, who called a meeting to take into 



HISTORY OF ~DV PAGE COUNTY. 



67 



consideration the conduct of Mr. Harmond. He, 
being present, was advised to relinquish his 
claim, but he positivel}- refused to do it. and at 
the same time threw out some pretty savage 
threats against the settlers, in ease the} - at- 
tempted to remove him b}- force. After a long 
consultation, it was concluded that the building 
on the premises should be torn down if he did 
not abandon it without delay. At this decis- 
ion. Harmond became greatly exasperated, and. 
having his rifle with him, threatened to fire 
upon ''the first man who should tear off a 
board." Whereupon a fearless Quaker gentle- 
man stepped forth and remarked to Mr. Har- 
mond that if he designed to put that threat into 
execution he had better begin by shooting at 
him, as he considered himself a mark of suffi- 
cient magnitude for a claim jumper to shoot at, 
anyhow. The old Quaker was soon joined by 
Lyman Butterfield, who addressed Mr. Har- 
mond in pretty much the same straiu, inform- 
ing him that if he was not willing to waste his 
powder on one man, he would offer the addi- 
tional inducement of placing his own body in 
fair range, so that he might at least kill " two 
birds with one stone.'' But Harmond could 
not be prevailed upon to shoot, and so the 
party proceeded to the disputed claim, tearing 
down the house, and removing every vestige of 
former occupancy. Before ten minutes had 
elapsed, after the decision of the council of 
settlers, this was done, and Mr. Harmond was 
sent on his way to other parts, not rejoicing, 
but uttering the most awful denunciations 
against such ungentlemanly treatment. 

In justice to a numerous class of our early 
settlers, we deem it appropriate to introduce 
here a brief notice of a society which was formed 
in 1834, and known as the " Hognatorial Coun- 
cil." We have ransacked all the dead languages 
we ever heard of in order to obtain for our 
readers some clew to the origin ofthisjwnoiiicit. 
but have been signally defeated in the under- 
taking. Its origin is altogether too obscure for 



us, and we leave the task of tracing it to pro- 
fessional archaeologists. The object of the 
" council " seems to have been the settling of a 
peculiar class of claim difficulties, which were 
not taken cognizance of by the bona fidt claim 
committee, and its operations were designed to 
burlesque the proceedings of that committee, 
as well as to ridicule courts in general. All 
disputes brought before the " Hognatorial " 
were settled in a summary and satisfactory 
manner. We can illustrate this remark with 
but one instance, which occurred in the south 
part of the county. A man by the name of 
Clark, who was firmly grounded in Midship- 
man Easy's doctrine of " what belongs to my 
neighbor belongs also to me." made a " claim ' 
upon another man's land, lying somewhere on 
the Du Page River. Finding that peaceable 
and quiet possession was impossible, he applied 
to a gentleman who happened to be posted in 
" hognatorial matters " for advice. He was, of 
course, advised to bring the matter before the 
" Hognatorial Council," as that was the only 
reliable tribunal having jurisdiction over such 
grievances. His case was prepared by Nathan 
Allen, a man of superior legal attainments, and 
upon a certain day the Hognatorial Council 
room was crowded to witness the proceedings 
in the case. Allen opened the case by giving 
to the jury a plain, unvarnished statement of 
the facts, and closed it by a most pathetic ap- 
peal to their sense of justice in behalf of his 
wronged and injured client. Several witnesses 
were called upon to testify, and the upshot of 
the testimony was that Mr. Clark hail a claim 
commencing at a certain point on Du Page 
River, but in what direction his lines ran from 
that point it was impossible to ascertain. Sev- 
eral hours were occupied in examining wit- 
nesses, during which time Clark kept a boy 
running to and fro between the '-council cham- 
ber " and his house, to inform his wife of the 
different phases which the case assumed as the 
trial progressed. At length the testimony was 



68 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



all in, the closing argument made, and the case 
submitted to the jury. There was but one 
point left for the jury to act upon, and that re- 
lated particularly to the boundary of Clark's 
claim. They were out but a short time, and re- 
turned the following verdict : " We, the jurors 
in this case, decide that Mr. Clark is justly en- 
titled to a piece of land lying on the Du Page 



River, and described as follows, to wit : Com- 
mencing at a certain point on the east bank of 
said river, and running perpendicular to the 
horizon straight hj>." This was enough for 
Clark. He hastened to communicate the result 
to his waiting, anxious wife, and afterward pro- 
ceeded to the tavern and got ingloriously 
drunk over the result of his victorious suit. 



CHAPTER V. 



FIRST INTRODUCTION OF SLAVERY INTO THE COLONY OF VIRGINIA— FIRST ANTI-SLAVERY LITERA- 
TURE— SOUTHERN ORIGIN OF ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES— ACTION OF THE QUAKERS— "THE 
GENIUS OF UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION —EARLY ABOLITIONISTS— THE OLD FEDERAL 
PARTY— ORIGIN OF THE DEMOCRATIC AND WHIG PARTIES— ORIGIN OF THE RE- 
PUBLICAN PARTY — GOV. COLES— ELIHU B. WASHBURNE — STEPHEN A. 
DOUGLAS— ABRAHAM LINCOLN— THE "WESTERN CITIZEN" INTRODU- 
CES ABOLITIONISM INTO CHICAGO— ITS EFFECT— ILLINOIS THE 
FIRST STATE TO TAKE POLITICAL ACTION IN THE ABOLI- 
TION MOVEMENT— JOHN BROWN— FORT SUMTER. 



THE history of the war of the rebellion has 
been written by several of the ablest men 
our country has produced as political econo- 
mists and authors ; and while these men have 
given us the fundamental principles that ruled 
in the issue, and even told how these principles 
gathered force in the councils of the nation, 
none of them have made an historical record of 
the special events from the first, which, step by 
step, produced the cause for which the issue 
came into being. Nor have they biographically 
sketched the men who were the instruments by 
which the great change in public opinion was 
wrought, that finally became an " irrepressible 
conflict." to be decided by the sword only. 
This as yet unwritten chapter in history maybe 
appropriately introduced here to precede the 
war record of Du Page County. 

Among the first American anti-slavery lit- 
erature to be found since we became a nation 
are some tracts in the private library of George 
Washington, which library was purchased by 



some Boston gentleman, and presented to the 
Boston Athenajum for preservation, where they 
may now be found. Next in order, exclusively 
anti-slavery, may be cited an oration upon the 
moral and political evils of slavery, delivered 
at a public meeting of the Maryland Society for 
Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, July 4, 
1791, by George Buchanan. M. D., member of 
the American Philosophical Society, Baltimore ; 
printed by Philip Edwards, 1793, and re-printed 
by Robert Clark & Co., Cincinnati, in 1873, as 
an appendix to an address b} 7 William F. Poole 
on early anti-slavery opinions, delivered before 
the Cincinnati Literary Club in 1872. Dr- 
Buchanan's oration was a forcible argument 
against slavery, for which he received a vote of 
thanks from the society before whom it was de- 
livered. He was born near Baltimore, Septem- 
ber 19, 1763, and died at Philadelphia of yellow 
fever in 1807, while in the discharge of his 
duties as a physician. 

In Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, which were 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



69 



written in 1781-82, occur paragraphs condem- 
ning slavery in forcible language, and canvassing 
different plans for its extinction. In these sen- 
timents Mr. Jefferson was sustained by a very 
respectable constituency of Southern men, 
among whom was George Wythe, of William 
and Mary College. 

Says Mr. Poole in his address already re- 
ferred to : " There never has been a time since 
1619, when the first slave ship — a Dutch man- 
of-war — entered James River, in Virginia, when 
in our country there were not persons protest- 
ing against the wickedness and impolicy of the 
African slave trade, and of the do'mestic slave 
system. Slavery was introduced into the 
American colonies against the wishes of the 
settlers by the avarice of British traders, and 
with the connivance of the British Government. 
In 1772, the Assembly of Virginia petitioned 
the throne of England to stop the importation 
of slaves, using language as follows : ' We are 
encouraged to look up to the throne and implore 
your Majesty's paternal assistance in averting 
a calamity of a most alarming nature. The 
importation of slaves into the colonies from the 
coast of Africa hath long been considered as a 
trade of great inhumanity, and under its present 
encouragement, we have great reason to fear, 
will endanger the very existence of your Maj- 
esty's dominion." 

No notice was taken of the petition by the 
crown, from which it is manifest that slavey 
was enforced upon America by the mother 
country. 

Even while the first crude thoughts of the 
American Revolution were revolving in the 
minds of our fathers, an anti-slavery society 
was formed by the Quakers at Sun Tavern in 
Philadelphia, April 14, 1775. 

The next year, 1776, the Quakers disowned 
such of their members as continued to hold 
slaves over the lawful age. 

Patrick Henry in a letter dated January 18, 
1773, to Robert Pleasants, afterward President 



of the Virginia Abolition Society, said : "Be- 
lieve me I shall honor the Quakers for their noble 
efforts to abolish slavery. * * * I believe 
a time will come when an opportunity will be 
offered to abolish this lamentable evil." The 
first anti-slavery society took the name of the 
society for the relief of free negroes unlawfully 
held in bondage. It met four times in 1775, 
but on account of the Revolutionary war did 
not meet again till February, 1784, the next 
year after peace. Benjamin Franklin was Pres- 
dent and Benjamin Rush Secretary of this so- 
ciety in 1787. 

A society in New York was established for 
the manumission of slaves January 25. 1785, 
of which John Jay was President, and Alexan- 
der Hamilton his successor. 

The foregoing are only a few of the leading 
anti-slaver}' societies which sprung into exis- 
tence in the first half-century of our Govern- 
ment. The American Colonization Society was 
formed in 1816, for the purpose of freeing slaves 
and sending them to Africa, but this was found 
to be of but little avail in the immense work to be 
accomplished. In 1827. there were 136 aboli- 
tion societies in the United States, 106 of which 
were in slave-holding States. Many of the 
later established ones of these, were the result 
of Benjamin Lundy's efforts, who was the main 
connecting link between the old societies 
founded by the Revolutionary fathers and the 
more modern Abolitionists, who revised the 
work that they begun, and carried it on to suc- 
cess amidst a storm of abuse, and sometimes 
great personal violence. 

Mr. Lundj- was a Hicksite Quaker, born 
in New Jersey January 4, 1789. In 1821, 
he commenced the publication of The Gen- 
ius of Universal Emancipation at Mount 
Pleasant, Ohio. This name to his paper was 
borrowed from Grattan's eloquent speech on 
the abolition of slaver}* in the British Do- 
minion. His paper was removed to Tennessee, 
where it was continued till it was again re- 



70 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



moved to Baltimore in 1825, and afterward to 
Philadelphia, where it was continued till de- 
stroyed by a mob at the burning of Pennsyl- 
vania Hall in 1837. 

Mr. Lundy, then undaunted by the murder 
of Elijah P. Lovejoy, went to Illinois to con- 
tinue the work he had begun there by resuming 
the publication of the Genius, where his prede- 
cessor had lost his life in the same cause. 

William Lloyd Garrison, William Goodell, 
Joshua Leavitt, Arthur Tappan and many 
other leaders of the anti-slavery movement owe 
their convictions to Lundy's teachings. His 
paper was largely patronized by prominent 
men in the Slave States. In an August num- 
ber of the Genius, 1825, a statement is made 
showing that there were more subscribers to 
the paper in North Carolina than in any other 
State. He died at Lowell, 111., August 22, 1839. 

William Lloyd Garrison was born at New- 
buryport, Mass., December 12, 1804, and when 
veiy young, his father died, and he was left to 
the care of a Christian mother. When only 
nine years old, he was apprenticed to a shoe- 
maker, but found his health would not permit 
him to continue the trade. He then, after 
some efforts to secure the advantages of an 
academ3', became apprenticed to the publisher 
of a paper in his native town, and, while learn- 
ing this trade, kept up his studies and began 
to contribute for the press. At the age of 
twenty-four, he became editor and proprietor 
of a paper at Newburyport, but this enterprise 
was not a success. In 1827, he became editor 
of a total abstinence journal in Boston, which 
was united later with a temperance and political 
paper in Bennington, Vt. Subsequently, he 
united with Benjamin Lundy, a Quaker, in the 
publication of The Genius of Universal Eman- 
cipation, at Athens, Ohio, where his uncompro- 
mising spirit soon manifested itself, and Gar- 
rison was imprisoned for libel. His fine was 
paid by A. Tappan, and Garrison went to Bos- 
ton, where, January 1, 1831, he issued the first 



number of the historical Liberator. He started 
without mone3 - , and did not have even an 
office. In 1832, he visited England, where he 
was well received by many of the leaders of 
public opinion. When the American Anti- 
Slavery Society was organized at Philadelphia, 
he took a prominent part in the work. He 
lectured frequently, and was on one occasion 
dragged through the streets of Boston by a 
mob for pleading the cause of the bondman. 
Garrison was persecuted greatlj - , and the Gov- 
ernor of Georgia once offered $5,000 for his 
arrest. The warfare he waged against slavery 
was continued until the slaves were set free, 
and January 1, 1866, he published the last 
number of the Liberator. From that time till 
his death, which occurred May 24, 1879, he 
was engaged in writing on various topics. 

Benjamin Franklin Wade was born in Spring- 
field, Mass., October 27, 1800. Like Garrison, 
and many of the most eminent men of this 
country, his early life was a struggle to obtain 
an education — a struggle which was success- 
ful. In 1826, he began the study of law, and 
two years after, was admitted to the bar in 
Ashtabula Count3', Ohio. In 1847, he was 
chosen Presiding Judge of the Third District 
of the State, and in 1851 was elected United 
States Senator, and re-elected in 1857 and 
1863. In 1865, he became President pro tem. 
of the Senate, and Acting Vice President of 
the United States. In March, 1867, he was 
elected President of the Senate. Senator Wade 
was a strong anti-slavery leader, a stalwart 
Union man, and advocated the homestead bill 
for years, and it was in his charge that it 
finally passed through the Senate. He was a 
member of the San Domingo Commission, and 
favored the annexation of that island to the 
United States. His death occurred March 2, 
1878, at Jefferson, Ohio. 

T. Allan was born in Middle Tennessee, and 
grew to manhood in Huntsville, Ala. In 1832, 
he went to Lane Seminary at Cincinnati, Ohio, 




c^o^X lOcla^/^ 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



71 



and soon afterward took an active part in 
slavery discussions by the students of that 
institution, always advocating abolitionism. 
This banished him from his father's house in 
Alabama and also from Lane Seminary, to- 
gether with many other anti-slavery agitators 
among the conscientious students. Mr. Allan 
then took the lecture field, and became agent 
of the anti-slavery society in Ohio and West- 
ern New York and also in Illinois. For ten 
years this was his main work. He now lives 
at Geneseo, 111. 

William Goodell, by profession a merchant, 
converted also by Lundy in 1828, was the 
editor at the time of the National Temperance 
Journal at Providence, R. I. He became a 
permanent editor of anti-slavery journals, the 
Friend uf Man and Pfincipia. He was the 
main editor and supporter of the Gerrit Smith 
doctrine of the unconstitutionality of slavery, 
on which a section of the Liberty party was 
formed. He died at Jauesville, Wis., in 1879. 

Joshua Leavitt, born in the western part of 
Massachusetts, a convert of Lundy's, a minister 
by education and an editor by profession. He 
published the Emancipator, the organ of the 
national Abolitionists, after Garrison's disaffec- 
tion. He vvas the leader in the foundation of 
the Liberty party of 1840. which grew into the 
Republican party of 1860, of which Abraham 
Lincoln became the first successful and official 
representative. Both the Evangelist and the 
Indepi i"l< nt of New York have been under his 
editorial charge, and were indebted to him for 
no small share of their influence as anti-slavery 
organs. He died at Brooklyn, N. Y., January 
16, 1873. 

William Bllery Chanuiug was born at New- 
port, R. I., April 7, 1780. Coleridge said : " He 
had the love of Wisdom and the wisdom of 
Love." In 1837, his efforts to abolish slavery 
began. In 1841, his book on the subject was 
published, and had a wide circulation. He 
died at Bennington, Yt., October 2, 1842. 



Elijah Parish Lovejoy, "first American mar- 
tyr to the freedom of the press and the free- 
dom of the slave," was born in Albion, Me., 
November 9, 1802 ; educated at Waterville ; 
went to St. Louis, Mo., in 1827 ; ordained in 
1834 ; became editor of the St. Louis Observer, 
a Presbyterian weekly. Required by the pro- 
prietors of the paper to be silent on the sub- 
ject of slavery, he boldly claimed the rights of 
free speech and a free press ; was mobbed in 
St. Louis and St. Charles ; bought the paper ; 
removed it to Alton, 111., where three presses 
were destroyed by violence, and at length, on 
the night of November 7, 1S37, while, by the 
Mayor's order, defending his fourth, he was 
shot by an armed mob. His murder roused 
the North against slavery. 

Rev. and Hon. Owen Lovejoy, a younger 
brother of Elijah P., born in Albion, Me., Jan- 
uary 6, 1811. He vowed eternal hostility to 
slavery over the dead body of his brother ; be- 
came pastor of the Congregational Church of 
Princeton, III, in 1838 ; was elected to the 
Illinois Legislature in 1854, to Congress in 
1856, and for three succeeding terms; died 
while a member, in March, 1864, in Brooklyn. 
N. Y. He vvas a very able preacher ; had 
wonderful magnetism as a political speaker 
over the masses ; became a leader in Congress, 
asserting and maintaining the right of free 
speech there, against clamorous opposition* 

James G. Birney was born at Danville, Ky., 
February 4, 1792. He was the first Liberty 
party candidate for the Presidency ; was a 
wealthy Southern slaveholder ; emancipated his 
slaves, and was editor of the Philanthropist at 
Cincinnati, Ohio. His press was destroyed sev- 
eral times. He died at Perth Amboy, N. J., 
November 25, 1857. 

Gammiel Baily, a physician by profession, 
succeeded Birney in editing the Philanthropist- 
He founded the National Em at Washington, 

•II. L. Hammond contributed the sketch of both of the Love- 
joys. 



HISTORY OF DV PAGE COUNTY. 



the paper that first gave to the world " Uncle 
Tom's Cabin." The Era had a great influence 
in popularizing anti-slavery principles. Dr. 
Baily died in 1857 on a passage from Europe. 

John G. Whittierwas born in Haverhill, Mass., 
December 17, 1807. He was a shoemaker by 
trade, a Quaker in religion, and a poet by 
nature. He was an early friend of both Garri- 
son and Lundy, from whom his innate abhor- 
rence to human slavery was strengthened, and 
he never ceased to use his able pen against it 
till emancipation was proclaimed. His other 
contributions to American literature have done 
much to elevate its standard. His home is at 
Amesbury, Mass. 

Arthur Tappan was born in Connecticut Ma}' 
22, 1786. He became a wealthy New York 
merchant, well known throughout the whole 
country as the abolition merchant, whose store 
was shunned by the Southern trade. He founded 
the Emancipator ; helped to found Oberlin Col- 
lege, and was ever ready to assist the great 
cause both with his influence and money. He 
died July 23, 1865. 

Lewis Tappan, brother of Arthur, was born in 
Connecticut May 23, 1788. He was also a 
wealthy New York merchant. He founded the 
American Missionary Association, and was one 
of the promoters of the National Era. He died 
July 21, 1873. 

Charles Sumner was born in Boston, Mass., 
Januar}' 6, 1811. He was the successor of 
Daniel Webster in the United States Senate in 
1851, which place he retained by successive 
elections till his death. During this long and 
exciting period in our country's history, he was 
one of the main pillars in the great anti-slavery 
fabric, which grew into maturity during his 
Senatorial terms. His speech on the rendition 
of Mason and Slidell was one of the most 
masterl}- arguments of his time, and settled the 
American mind in favor of Seward's policy in 
delivering them up. Mr. Sumner died in Wash- 
ington, D. C, March 11, 1874. 



Lucretia Mott, one of the earliest female anti- 
slavery orators — a Quaker preacher — was born 
on the island of Nantucket in 1794, and resided 
through her active life in Philadelphia. She 
was a friend and supporter of Lundy on his 
first appearance as an agitator ; was afterward 
alike the friend and patron of Garrison. More 
than any other woman, should she be known as 
the female philanthropist of America, ranking 
with Elizabeth Fry in England. She died at 
her home, near Philadlphia, in November, 1880. 

Lydia Maria Child, a celebrated woman, edi- 
tor and author, a most elegant writer. She 
edited the National State Slavery Standard, the 
organ of the Garrison party. She wrote the 
famous book, " An Appeal for the African." 
She died in Massachusetts at a very great age, 
in the spring of 1880. 

Sarah and Angelina Grimke, two sisters and 
converted slaveholders from Charleston. S. C. 
They emancipated their slaves and came North 
to reside, and were active co-workers with the 
Garrisonians of Boston. Angelina married 
Theodore D. Weld. They were both women of 
talent, and devoted philanthropists. 

Theodore D. Weld became a student of Lane 
Seminary in 1833, was a very eloquent orator 
and forcible writer. At one time, he seemed to 
be the literary author of the anti-slaver}' move- 
ment. " Slavery as It Is " and the so-called 
"Bible Argument " against slavery, works by 
him, were the great guns of the moral conflict. 
He married Angelina Grimke, a fit helpmeet in 
his anti-slavery mission. 

Charles T. Torrey, a minister of the Congre- 
gational Church and editor of the Tocsin of 
Liberty, of Albany, and other papers ; the 
operator on the Underground Bailroad ; was 
arrested in Maryland for running off slaves ; 
convicted, sent to prison for life and died in a 
year in the Maryland State Prison. He was a 
devoted Christian man and known now as the 
Martyr Torrey. 

Samuel Lewis, a prominent anti-slavery man 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



73 



of Ohio and eloquent lay preacher of the Meth- 
odist denomination. He was a member of the 
Board of Education of the State. He was an 
effective orator, friend and supporter of Birney, 
Bailey and Chase. 

Salmon P. Chase was born in Cornish, N. H., 
January 13, 1808. He was one of the founders 
of the Libert}' party, in. 1848, a member of 
the Buffalo Free-Soil Convention that nomi- 
nated Van Buren for President. In 1849, 
elected United States Senator from Ohio by 
a coalition of Democrats and Free-Soilers, and 
made a record in the Senate as the uncom- 
promising enemy of slavery. He became Gov- 
ernor of Ohio in 1855, and was re-elected in 
1857, and was appointed Secretary of the 
Treasury by Lincoln in 1861, which office he 
held three years, during which time the bank- 
ing system now in use was founded, of which 
he may be called the father. Upon the death 
of Chief Justice Taney, Mr. Chase was ap- 
pointed by Mr. Lincoln to that position, Octo- 
ber, 1864. The fourteenth amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States, which guar- 
anteed civil rights to the Freedmau, was among 
the last of the public acts passed under his ad- 
vocacy. He died of apoplexy at the residence 
of his daughter, Mrs. William Hoyt, New York 
City, May 7, 1873. 

Joshua R. Giddings, the famous member of 
Congress from Ohio, who pioneered the slavery 
agitation in that great conservative body, was 
born at Athens, Penn., October 6, 1795. His 
reputation for consistency and honesty as a 
statesman was acknowledged throughout the 
country. He was appointed Consul General at 
Montreal by Abraham Lincoln, where he died 
May 27, 1864. 

Gerrit Smith, a wealthy man of Central New 
York, born in 1798, the most noted philan- 
thropist of the country. He was the head of 
the intense organization in politics known as 
the Gerrit Smith's Liberty Party. He was a 
friend alike of the two extremes of action- 



John Brown and Elihu Burritt. Gave his money 
freely to aid the fugitives, and for John 
Brown's Kansas work, for the support of the 
temperance and anti-slavery cause, and gave 
away laud freely to colored men upon which 
to make for themselves farms. He died sud- 
denly in New York in 1874. 

Elihu Burritt was born at New Britain, 
Conn., December 8, 1811. He was a blacksmith 
by trade, and was known throughout the coun- 
try as " The Learned Blacksmith." Besides his 
wonderful linguistic accomplishments, he was 
a persistent searcher into the wants of the com" 
mon, people, and to this end made a tour 
through England on foot. He was ever ready 
in America to assist the abolition cause with 
his logical pen as well as ever}' other cause on 
the side of humanity against oppression. He 
died at the place of his birth in March, 3 867. 

Wendell Phillips, the great New England 
orator, born in Boston in 1811, the most active 
of all the agitators; now alive and as aggressive 
as ever in the path to which his tenacious con- 
science leads. His almost unparalleled powers 
of eloquence have become well known through- 
out the country, and the fame of them is destined 
to pass into history. 

Frederick Douglas was a slave by birth, 
who secured his freedom first by flight and 
afterward by paying his master his commercial 
value in cash to enable him to avoid being 
victimized by the Fugitive Slave Law. He 
distinguished himself by writing a book en- 
titled " My Bondage and My Freedom," which 
had a wide circulation, and by some subtle and 
secret methods, found its way into various parts 
of the South, where it caused great commotion. 
Mr. Douglas is now Recorder of Deeds in the 
District of Columbia. 

Jane Gray Swishelm was born in Pittsburgh, 
Penn., December 6, 1815, descended from the 
old Scotch Reformers, and also from the amia- 
ble Lad}' Jane Gray, the nine days' Queen of 
England. In January, 1848, she started the 



74 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Pittsburgh Saturday Visitor, a paper devoted 
to various reforms, but especially to the anti- 
slavery cause. This paper supported Van 
Buren when a Free-Soil candidate for the Pres- 
idency as she says " to smash one of the great 
pro-slavery parties of the nation, and gain an 
anti-slavery balance of power to counteract the 
slavery vote for which both contended." This 
paper, together with many other anti-slavery 
sheets, were the entering-wedge of disintegra- 
tion to the political policy which had hitherto 
courted the favor of the slavey interest as in- 
despensable to success ; for they forced their 
sentiments into the ranks of the old Whig party 
till there was little left of it but a shell after 
its abolition element was brought to the sur- 
face. In the spring of 1857, Mrs. Swishelm 
established the Visitor at St. Cloud, Minn., soon 
afterward taking the lecture field as an aboli- 
tionist. Her path was a thorny one, but she 
succeeded with her paper in spite of mobs and 
threats, and the old public functionaries of 
Minnesota recoiled before her oratorical and ed- 
itorial power, and finally sunk below the sur- 
face to rise no more. 

In 1881, Mrs. Swishelm published her book 
entitled" Half a Century," which is a valuable 
record of the stirring time indicated in its title. 
She now lives at Swissvale, near Pittsburgh, 
still vigorous in mind and body. 

Henry B. Stanton was one of the Lane Sem- 
inary students at the time of the anti-slavery 
excitement there. He was from Rochester, N. 
Y. He was a man of talent, a fine speaker, 
and soon took a prominent part in the Aboli- 
tion movement. His field of labor was mostly 
in New England and New York. Some of the 
time he was associated with James G. Birney. 
He was one of the originators of the Liberty 
party. He is still living, hale and hearty — a 
New York lawyer. 

Hooper Warren, a native of Windsor, Vt., a 
printer by trade, and an editor by profession. 
The early anti-slavery man in Illinois when 



the State was admitted into the Union, pub- 
lished the Edwardsville Spectator from about 
1820 to 182G, which at the time was the only 
paper that opposed the introduction of slavery 
into Illinois. In that issue, he was a coadjutor 
of Gov. Coles, and first nominated him as a 
candidate for Governor. He was editor, in 
1841 and 1842, with Z. Eastman, of the Genius 
of Liberty. He died at the home of his 
daughter at Mendota, in 1864. He was one of 
those who early shaped the anti-slavery move- 
ment in the West, from Hooper Warren, 
through Lovejo}', on to the culmination of the 
reform in the election of Abraham Lincoln, 
which was manifestly the result of their ef- 
forts. 

Jonathan Blauchard, a native of Vermont, 
took strong anti-slavery ground when he, a 
young man, started out in life, armed with a 
college diploma and an uncompromising spirit 
toward slavery and secret societies. He was 
early associated with the abolition movement, 
and was outspoken as to the impolicy of slav- 
ery when Henry Ward Beecher, his associate, 
stood on neutral ground, under the wing of his 
venerable father, Dr. Lyman Beecher, of Cin- 
cinnati. Mr. Blanchard was a settled pastor 
over a church in Cincinnati in 1848, and, dur- 
ing his residence at that place, held a debate 
with Rev. Dr. Rice, a pro-slavery minister of 
his own denomination, which debate was pub- 
lished in book form, and is now a kind of rare 
old relic sometimes found on second-hand 
booksellers' shelves, labeled " scarce," and sold 
at an advance on its original price. 

From Cincinnati, Mr. Blanchard removed to 
Galesburg, where he became President of Knox 
College, after remaining at which place a few 
years he came to Wheaton, and has been Presi- 
dent of the college at this place till 1882, when 
he voluntarily resigned for his son Charles to 
take his place. He is still vigorous in mind, 
with a positiveness of purpose whose limit has 
not yet been overtaken by his advancing years. 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



75 



Ichabod Codding was bora in Bristol. Onta- 
rio Co., N. Y., September 23, 1810. Secretary 
Chase acknowledged him to be the greatest 
orator he ever heard. He was educated at 
Middlebury College, Vt, and came to Illinois 
in ] 842, by invitation of Mr. Eastman, to take 
the lecture field in the anti-slavery agitation at 
the West, and it is not too much to say that 
his influence in this growing locality had much 
to do in developing that sentiment that made 
it possible to nominate one of its sons to the 
Presidency of the United States. Mr. Codding 
died at Baraboo, Wis., June 17, 1866. 

Zebina Eastman, born iu Amherst, Mass., a 
printer by trade and an educated journalist, 
having studied for that profession, he suc- 
ceeded Mr. Luudy, the pioneer, in editing his 
paper in Illinois, in 1839. In 1811, edited the 
Genius of Liberty, with Hooper Warren. In 
1842, removed to Chicago, by invitation of Dr. 
C. V. Dyer and Philo Carpenter, and com- 
menced the publication of the Western ('itir.m, 
then the only anti-slavery paper in the North- 
west, with the exception of the Philanthropist, 
at Cincinnati. The Citizen was continued till 
1855. He was a coadjutor with Elihu Burritt 
in his League of Brotherhood aud a member of 
the Peace Congress at Frankfort, Germany, in 
1850. He was appointed by Lincoln Consul at 
Bristol iu 1861. He now resides near Chicago, 
and is iu the employment of the Government. 
The policy of the anti-slavery agitation shaped 
in the Citizen was iu some sense distinct from 
the issues of the Eastern Abolitionists. It was 
more definitely political and for the restoration 
of the Declaration of Independence in the 
Government, and was the policy on which anti- 
slavcry principles triumphed iu the election of 
Mr. Lincoln. 

Dr. Charles V. Dyer, the famous Abolitionist 
of Chicago, and eminent as a manager of the 
Underground Railroad, a noted wil and ever a 
pronounced active man. The colored people 
of Chicago presented him with a gold-headed 



cane for having broken a previous one over the 
head of a slave-catcher. He was appointed by 
President Lincoln Judge of the Slave Trade 
Court at Sierra Leone. Died at Chicago in 
1877. 

Charles Durkee, residing at Kenosha, Wis., 
was the first anti-slavery Congressman from 
Wisconsin, and afterward United States Sen- 
ator. He was a very effective man in the anti- 
slavery cause in the early days of its agitation 
in the Northwest. He was a member of the 
Peace Congress at Paris in 1849. 

Elihu B. Washburn, born at Livermore, Me., 
September 23, 1816, was elected to Congress 
from Galena, 111., November, 1852, by the votes 
of the Old Whig party and the Abolitionists who 
joined them. He took his seat in the Thirty- 
third Congress in December, 1853, and to the 
utmost of his power resisted the passage of the 
Kansas and Nebraska bill, and voted for every 
measure tending to the abolition of slavery. 
In his eight subsequent elections to Congress, 
he received the entire abolition vote of his dis- 
trict. 

He was a strong advocate for the nomination 
of Mr. Lincoln in 1860, and was his confiden- 
tial friend and adviser during his administra- 
tion. 

Was appointed Secretary of State by Gen. 
Grant iu 1869, occupying that position but a 
short time, when he was sent as a minister to 
France, in March, 1869. He held this position 
eight aud a half years, during which time the 
Franco-German war took place. 

He was charged with the protection of the 
German nationalities in Paris and France. He 
was recalled at his own request, in 1877, since 
which time he has resided in Chicago. 

Edward Coles was the earliest and most dis- 
tinguished Abolitionist that ever lived in Illi- 
nois, and was the second Governor of the State. 
He was born in Virginia in 1786. His father 
was a large slaveholder, and at his death be- 
queathed to him a plantation with a large num- 



76 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



ber of slaves. Determining not to live in a 
slave-holding State, nor to hold slaves, he sold 
his plantation, liberated all his slaves, giving 
to each 160 acres of land in Illinois and re- 
moved to Illinois in 1819. From his earliest 
childhood, he imbibed the most intense hatred 
of slavery, and devoted the earlier part of his 
life to the cause of abolitionism. He was 
Governor of Illinois at the time of the colossal 
and desperate struggle to make it a Slave 
State, and all his official and personal influence 
was wielded to defeat that great iniquity. 
To him more than to any other man is Illinois 
indebted for being a free State. 

A sketch of Gen. Coles and of the slavery 
struggle of 1823 and 1824, has been prepared 
by Hon. E. B. Washburn, which will form a 
valuable contribution to early Illinois history. 
Gov. Coles died in Philadelphia in 1868. 

William Henry Seward was born in Florida, 
Orange Co., N. Y., May 16, 1801. When the 
issue of a slavery or anti-slavery policy came 
before the administration, he became an em- 
phatic anti-slavery advocate, and ever after- 
ward was faithful to that principle. He was 
the author of that forcible term, the "irre- 
pressible conflict," which, the sequel showsj 
was no empty name. He was appointed Sec- 
retary of State by Lincoln in 1861, and it is to 
his able foreign policy that our nation owed 
the preservation of peace abroad during our 
Rebellion. Mr. Seward died in Auburn, N. Y., 
October 10, 1872. 

Theodore Parker, an independent Unitarian 
minister of Boston, almost initiated a new school 
in theology, which might be styled the religion 
of humanity, and was a very effective laborer 
in the anti-slavery cause, without attaching 
himself to any of its sects. He was born at 
Lexington, Mass., in 1812, on the consecrated 
ground of the Revolution, and was the grand- 
son of one of its early heroes, Capt. John Parker. 
During the time of the fierce anti-slavery agi- 
tation, he delivered occasionally a great sermon 



or an address, on the intense points of the con 
test then at issue. At the time of the attempted 
enforcement of the fugitive slave law, he mani- 
fested a most fierce hostility to its enforcement ; 
and, at one time, he addressed a large concourse 
of his fellow-citizens in Federal Hall, counseling 
effective passive resistence, while the corridors 
of the hall were filled with files of United States 
soldiers with fixed bayonets, ordered there to 
preserve the peace and enforce the law. He de- 
fied the soldiery, and he declared that he should 
march out between their files when he had closed 
his speech ! Horace Greeley, of the New York 
Tribune, was always among the most anxious 
to publish the forcible productions of Theo- 
dore Parker. He died at Florence. Italy, where 
he had gone for the purpose of rejuvenating his 
gradually perishing vitality on the 16th of May, 
1860. This strong and intellectually great man, 
who had lived such an active life, expressed 
regret, when he came to die, that he had accom- 
plished so little for humanity. 

John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of 
the United States, and son of the second Presi- 
dent, was one of the greatest statesmen and 
remarkable men the country has produced. He 
was born at Quincy, Mass., July 11, 1867, and 
was a youth, and doubtless very much inspired 
by the events, during the period of our Revo- 
lutionary war. He should be regarded as 
among the most foremost of the anti-slavery 
men of the country, though he avowed no 
affinity with any of the organizations or sects 
that grew out of the agitation. He was in fact 
the first political victim to the slave power 
of the country, that for a generation slaugh- 
tered its thousands of advanced men, and 
the manhood of millions of the politicians 
of the country ; for it was because he was not 
a slave-holder, and was a man of the North 
more than for anything else that he was de- 
feated for the Presidency for the second term by 
Andrew Jackson ; from this period the sectional 
feeling for the protection of slavery took its 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



77 



rise. Mr. Adams, after his return to Congress, 
beginning a new career in political life, after he 
had once run its course to the Presidency, be- 
came specially known as the champion of the 
right of petition ; a sacred political and civil 
constitutional right, which had been smitten 
down in the interest of slavery at the behest of 
the slave leaders. Mr. Adams, from his expe- 
rience in political life from the beginning of the 
Government, and his once personal contact 
with its influence, knew more than any other 
man of the insiduous wiles of the growing 
slave power, and he knew better than any 
other man how to combat it. His was an in- 
dividual life of combat with that power, with- 
out support from party or combination. The 
conflicts with it is one of the sublimest mani- 
festations of the career of the politician and 
statesman the country has ever furnished ; and 
in it he sought for no co-operation from any 
clique or combination, and seems to stand alone 
like the form of a giant, fighting for human 
and constitutional rights of the fellow-men. 
As he had good reason to suspect the iniquities 
that were covered in the heap of meal, he 
delved into the maturing plot, for the robbing 
of Mexico of her province of Texas, and get- 
ting special information from old Benjamin 
Lund}-, who had traveled largely in Texas for 
the purpose of settling a colony of emancipated 
slaves there, he astonished the slave-holding 
plotters and the nation at large by exposing in 
a great speech in Congress in 1836 the whole 
plan of securing the annexation of Texas for 
the purpose of extending the area of slavery. 
as the programme was some years later liter- 
ally carried out. Mr. Adams virtually defined 
the slave power as a political combination, 
though he did not give it that name, when he 
said that it " was a power in American politics 
that governed the Government." 

He gave no special encouragement to any 
plan of political action in hostility to slavery ; 
gave no special countenance to Garrison or the 



Liberty party, though he was particularly con- 
fidential with Benjamin Lundy and Joshua 
R. Giddings, but worked on, partially in 
sympathy with the party to which he nominally 
belonged, in hostility to the Jackson party, 
though himself an original Democrat, and the 
last of the Jetfersonian Presidents. Standing 
very much alone, and, for many years, con- 
temned by all parties ; not apparently perceiv- 
ing any ground for a voting opposition to slav- 
ery as an institution bulwarked in the reserved 
rights of the States, and therefore was not a 
political Abolitionist, and looking probably to 
its extirpation by moral force alone, as dis- 
couraging as it then seemed to be. But to 
this wise man above his generation was given 
the foresight to predict the policy and the way 
in which slavery was finally abolished by the 
war power. Abraham Lincoln adopted the 
doctrine of John Quiney Adams when he used 
the war power of the nation to abolish slavery. 
It was this power, which John Quincj - Adams 
portrayed in a great speech in 1836, as the 
only possible way in which the nation could 
reach slavery and put it out of existence. The 
slaveholders madly invoked that power, and 
met its recoil in the destruction of their pet 
institution. 

Mr. Adams was suddenly stricken down, 
with his lighting armor on, on the floor of the 
Representative Hall, and taken to a committee 
room, where he died in February, 18-18, and his 
last words were remarkable for so remarkable a 
man — " This is the last of earth." 

Cassius M. Clay, a native of Kentucky, and 
an early anti-slavery man of the South, who 
made himself most odious in his native section 
for his hostility to their cherished institution. 
He was born in Madison County, Ky., in 1811, 
and is still alive. He edited, in 1845, the 
True American, an anti-slavery newspaper in 
Lexington, at the time of the most intense ex- 
citement. He defended his press against the 
mob spirit by the well-known efficiency of his 



78 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



tried rifle ; but being prostrated by severe ill- 
ness, the mob improved the opportunity, and 
they broke up his newspaper establishment and 
shipped the fragments of his material out of 
the State. Horace Greeley, who was foremost 
in encouraging him, published a volume of his 
anti-slavery speeches in 1848. 

John P. Hale, born in Rochester, N. H, 
March 31, 1806, and died soon after his return 
from Madrid as United States Minister, under 
Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1873. He is 
distinguished as the leading politician under 
the Liberty party, and was that party's candi- 
date for the Presidency after James G. Birney, 
until it was merged into the Republican party. 
He is known as the first successful rebel against 
the slave power, he at that time being a nom- 
inee of the Democratic party for Congress ; op- 
posed the annexation of Texas ; was stricken 
out of the part}- roll of candidates ; and the 
people taking him up, he was elected United 
States Senator. He was first nominated for 
the Presidency by the Western Citizen of Chi- 
cago, in 1858, aud about six months after was 
indorsed by the National Liberty Party Con- 
vention. He was a genial, jovial man, and 
very much annoyed the Southern Senators by 
his pungent criticisms. He was the first anti- 
slavery man in the Senate, followed afterward 
by his coadjutors, Chase, Seward, Fessendeu 
and the corps of noble men that in time came 
to the front, to be the supporters of Lincoln in 
his arduous responsibilities as the emancipator 
of 4,000,000 of slaves. 

Rev. C. Cook, Congregational minister, was 
born in Vermont in 1778, graduated at Middle- 
bury College in 1808, preached in the State of 
New York till 1837 ; made an anti-slavery ar- 
gument iu the Presbyteriau General Assembly 
at Philadelphia, in 1836. He settled at Henne- 
pin, 111., in 1837, and gave anti-slavery lectures 
in various parts of the State in 1838 aud 1839, 
often being the victim of mob violence. 

In 1840, he removed to Aurora, Kane Co., 



111., and became pastor of the First Congrega- 
tional Church. He died at Ottawa, 111., March 
21, 1860, at the house of his son, B. C. Cook, 
where he spent the last fifteen years of his life. 
Horace Greeley was born in Amherst, N. H., 
February 3, 1811. His father removed to West 
Haven, Vt., when Horace was but ten years old, 
where, between the ills of poverty and intemper- 
ance which were ever present with the father, 
the education of the sou was sadly neglected ; 
but the young child of fortune possessed by 
nature the wherewithal to educate himself, as 
he paddled his own canoe through the waves of 
the great sea of life. At the age of fifteen, he 
was apprenticed to the printing business, after 
learning which trade he went to New York, ar- 
riving in August, 1831. Here he worked at his 
trade till June 1, 1833, when he became one of 
the proprietors of the Morning Post, the first 
penny daily- ever published in America. On 
March 22, 1834, the Nero Yorker was started 
with Mr. Greeley as editor. In the stirring 
times of 1840, he published the Log Cabin, a 
campaign paper in the interest of Gen. Har- 
rison's election to the Presidency, and the next 
year he commenced the publication of the New 
York Tribune, which paper he planted deep in 
the estimation of every thinker iu America, in- 
cluding not only- political economists, but even 
erratic dabblers in every species of reform, or 
whatever was claimed to be such — all had their 
"say 7 " in the columns of the Tribune. Of 
course, slavery became a target for his keenest 
darts, and from the first to the last of the con- 
flict between the slavery' and anti-slavery in- 
terest he never ceased to " pour hot shot" into 
the ranks of the enemies of universal freedom, 
all the more effective because Mr. Greeley him- 
self was free from any entanglements to cripple 
his own action, having no alliances with any 
party whose interests could be compromised by 
the downfall of slavery. Under his masterly 
pen, the Tribune soon took the highest rank in 
American journalism, and its circulation was 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



79 



not exceeded by any other paper, although it 
was interdicted in man} - of the Southern States, 
where, could its editor have been found, he 
would have been lynched on the spot. 

When the convention of 1860 met at Chicago 
to nominate a Republican candidate for Presi- 
dent of the United States, all eyes were turned 
toward Mr. Greeley, who seemed to hold the key 
to the situation ; nor was this hypothesis a false 
one. At that time, there were substantially 
but two candidates in the field — Seward and 
Lincoln. Mr. Seward stood high in the estima- 
tion of his party both East and West, and his 
record was untarnished by any political act that 
would not bear the closest scrutiny. Moreover, 
he was well versed in all the affairs of State, 
having been Governor, Senator and Foreign 
Minister, and bis soundness on the vital issues 
essential to the fulfillment of the Republican 
doctrines was not to be questioned. These 
qualifications would seem to give him an assur- 
ance of success, and would certainly have done 
so but for the influence of Mr. Greeley. Some 
years before this period, a rupture broke out 
between Mr. Seward and Mr. Greeley, growing 
out of a complaint on the part of the latter that 
the former had neither appreciated nor re- 
warded him for his services in the <.re'at Whig 
cause, in which the two were co-workers. As 
to this quarrel between these two distinguished 
and estimable statesmen, the public were, in the 
main, reticent, but, at the convention of 1860, 
it was in vain that Mr. Seward's friends tried 
to win over the great journalist — he cast his-in- 
fluence in favor of Mr. Lincoln, and turned 
the scale. 

In this sketch of Mr. Greeley, it would be un- 
timely to state the conditions that placed Mr. 
Lincoln in a position so high that onby Mr. 
Greeley's influence was necessaiy to make him 
the winner over the great statesman opposed to 
him, and we will pass to the next point in Mr. 
Greeley's life. When the rebellion broke out, 
he first proposed to let the seceding States go 



in peace under a belief that they would soon be 
glad to come back into the Union, but he did 
not long hold to this theory, and advocated a 
vigorous prosecution of the war. 

Omitting a record of his acts till 1872, let us 
look on both sides of the question which made 
him accept the nomination of the Democrats to 
be run by them as their candidate for the Presi- 
dency. First, he did not accept a plank in 
their platform which could in any way, even by 
implication, compromise his life-long teachings 
of Whig and Republican doctrines. The whole 
Democratic party virtually abandoned their 
ground and threw themselves at his feet — he 
whom they had ever affected to despise. As 
far as the substance went, this was a sufficient 
vindication of Mr. Greeley's course; but, in 
theory, it looked otherwise to many who had 
been his friends. He was accused of apostacy, 
and made the butt of unsparing ridicule beyond 
the power of his hitherto philosophic mind to 
bear. He sank rapidly beneath his load of 
humiliation, and died shortly after the election 
a victim to despair. 

His funeral was one of the most impressive 
ever known in New York, and every tongue 
that, but a few days before had spoken ill of him 
was now softened into charity for him who had 
ever been the great — the honest — the fearless 
mouthpiece of the Republican part}'. 

John G. Fee was born in Bracken County, 
Ky., in 1816. When a young man, he was 
ostracized by his parents for advocating anti- 
slavery sentiments. He organized three 
anti-slavery societies in the face of fierce op- 
position, and, continuing his efforts in this 
direction, he became the victim of violent 
mobs in 1856 and later. He was repeatedly 
threatened with death if he did not leave the 
Slate, but still he continued his labors. Dur- 
ing the war, he helped to establish various col- 
ored schools in Kentucky. lie was one of the 
founders of Berea College, and is now pastor 
of a church at that place. 



80 



HISTORY OF DU PAUE COUNTY. 



John Brown was born in Torrington, Conn.^ 
May 9, 1800, of good old Puritan stock, being 
fifth in descent from Peter Brown, who landed 
in the Mayflower in 1620. As a boy, he was 
an industrious, muscular, hardy and a capable 
worker in the great hive of industry that char- 
acterized the age of his youth. But he never 
was a boy except in years, for he felt the 
responsibilities of manhood from a tender age. 
From his earliest recollections he entertained a 
great aversion to slavery, and, in 1854, this 
trait in his character began to take action as 
the Kansas border opened a field for it. Four 
of his sons had settled there, eight miles from 
the village of Osawatomie, near the border. 
Here they became an object of great aversion 
to the border ruffians from Missouri on their 
father's account as well as their own, being 
Free- State men, and, in obedience to their call, 
their father came the next year — 1855— with 
arms and ammunition to defend them. During 
the next year, he had several successful en- 
counters with the pro-slavery raiders who 
came across the line to commit depredations 
on the Free-State men, aud soon gained a repu- 
tation which made him hated and feared by his 
adversaries in the irregular style of warfare 
that was then going on in Kansas. Thirty 
men were now under his command at Osawat- 
omie, and were suddenly attacked by a force 
of five hundred Missourians. Their advance 
was so sudden that half of his men were cut 
off and taken ; but, with the remainder, Brown 
made a glorious retreat, fighting his pursuing 
army as he fled before them, and inflicting 
severe losses upon them. For this gallant 
action he gained the sobriquet of "Osawat- 
omie Brown." 

Six weeks later, he held command of the 
forces to defend Lawrence against a greatly su- 
perior force of the enemy ; but the latter dared 
not make the attack against so obstinate a 
leader. 

These exciting events only served to whet 



the edge of his sword for new encounters against 
the slave power, against which his whole life 
and soul and strength was pitted, and he laid 
his plans accordingly. 

He had read of insurrections among slaves, 
and fully believed that if a respectable nucleus 
of strength could be established in their midst) 
an army could soon be improvised from them, 
who would gather force, like, a whirlwind, and 
sweep through the South. Under this belief, 
so inspiring to his hungry soul, he contemplated 
seizing the United States Arsenal at Harper's 
Ferry, where from 100,000 to 200,000 stand of 
arms were usually stored. 

He was about a year maturing his plans, and 
all things being ready on his part, he, at the 
head of twenty-two men, seventeen of whom 
were white and the remainder colored, made the 
attack at 10 o'clock Sunday night, on the 16th 
of October, 1859. The three watchmen of the 
arsenal were taken prisoners, and the town of 
Harper's Ferry fell into his hands. Private 
houses were entered, and all arms found therein 
were taken. The next morning, he had sixty 
prisoners in his camp, many of whom were work- 
men in the employment of the United States. 

As soon as the temporary stupor caused by 
his audacity had passed away, the citizens of 
the surrounding countiy began to gather to the 
scene, while, unfortunately for Brown, no recruits 
came to his standard except six or eight slaves 
who had been compelled to do so. An attack 
was now made upon the arsenal, which was kept 
up till the next day at noon, with losses on both 
sides. 

Brown's forces were now all killed or mortally 
wounded but three, who still held the engine 
house to which they had taken refuge. At 7 
o'clock, the door of their " last resort " was 
battered in, when Brown, still fighting with the 
courage of Charles XII at Bender, fell beneath 
a sabre stroke, receiving two bayonet thrusts 
after he was down, and the victory over this 
strange man was won. 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



83 



Now came his greatest triumph. Senator 
Mason, of Virginia, and Gov. Wise confronted 
him ; but his bearing was dignified and cheer- 
ful. Nor did he lose those masterly qualities 
of his mind, which challenged the respect of his 
enemies even till his death. His trial was put 
off till the 31st on account of his weakness from 
his wounds. 

In the defense which followed, he refused to 
allow his counsel to put in the plea of insanity, 
but he placed his defense solely on the moral 
points in the case, and firmly justified his course 
to the last. He was found guilty by the court 
of the several charges brought against him, and 
hung on the 2d of December. 

During the preparations, he was the calmest 
one of the thousands assembled to witness the 
last end of this hero. 

That he was an offender against the laws of 
Virginia no one can question, and his justifica- 
tion by the almost entire press and people of 
the North was one of the many proofs that the 
higher law is stronger than any that man can 
make when the public will demands its exe- 
cution. 

" John Brown's body lies moldering in the dust ; 
His soul is marching on !" 

became the song of the war, to be chanted by 
thousands of voices in concert, falling upon un- 
willing ears like the voice of a ghost, as the 
Northern soldiers marched through the South. 
He drew the first blood in the war that was 
hastened by his death, and only began in a 
small way, what was soon to be carried on un- 
der the forms of law on a far grander scale. 

His widow visited Chicago in August, 1882, 
and was received with public honors. 

Charles G. Finney was born in Litchfield, 
Conn., August 29, 1792— died in Oberlin, Ohio, 
August 16, 1875 — became President of Oberlin 
College in 1852, and held the position till 1866. 
The college over which he presided was noted 
for being a nursery of Abolitionists, from its 
first organization, under his rule. 



A brief sketch of Lane Seminary may be con- 
sidered as exemplary to show the growing 
anti-slavery sentiment that was destined first 
to split asunder churches, colleges and ulti- 
mately, for a time, the nation itself. It was 
established at Cincinnati in 1832 as a theo- 
logical school, when theology by many people 
in America recognized slavery as a patriarchal 
institution, justified in the Old Testament by 
precedent and not explicitly forbidden by the 
new. Dr. Lj-man Beecher was President of this 
institution, and Calvin E. Stone held the chair 
of Professor of Biblical Literature, and it was 
the first of its kind established in the West on 
a footing of the first grade. It was patronized 
by the best representatives of the orthodoxy of 
the country. But, unfortunately for Lane as 
for other " solid " institutions of the country, 
there was at that time subtly creeping into the 
public conscience a disintegrating " heresy,'' 
so called, and the very attempts that the found- 
ers of these various institutions made to sub- 
due the " heresy " (while in the germ cell) only 
served to cultivate it into a vigorous growth. 
What could these perplexed fathers do in this 
dilemma? If they gave full freedom to the 
young mind to discuss anti-slavery sentiments, 
the sturdy old leaders both in church and in 
State would be obliged to come in collision with 
the interests of their Southern associates, whose 
tenacity as advocates for slavery forbids its 
merits to be questioned under penalty of the 
severance of all ties of friendship and alliance. 
Hence, free discussion must be forbidden, in 
order to retain the good will and patronage of 
southern co-workers in religion as well as poli- 
tics. 

Pending this dilemma, in Lane Seminary 
many of its earnest students became thoroughly 
convinced of the impolicy and wickedness of 
slavery through the teachings of Garrison, as 
well as by the discussions in their own lyceum 
on the subject, and formed themselves into an 
anti-slavery society. When the preamble and 



84 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



resolutions of this society were read to their 
President, the venerable father acknowledged 
the truth and force of them, but averred that it 
was untimely to agitate the subject, and in- 
sisted that they should desist from so doing. 
This requisition the zealous students refused 
to comply with, but published their sentiments 
to the world through the press. The matter 
now became serious. Many papers took sides 
one way or the other, and the students unex- 
pectedly became famous. They were extolled 
as heroes b} T the Abolitionists, and branded as 
fools, and threatened with mob violence by the 
Kentucky slaveholders and their Cincinnati 
friends. The Trustees of Lane Seminary be- 
held the opening of this issue with consterna- 
tion. Lane Seminary was a " hot-bed of aboli- 
tionism." went forth the cry. Summary meas- 
ures must be taken to arrest this impression 
so fatal to the success of this institution. Ac- 
cordingly, new rules were made ; the students 
must not make public addresses against slavery ; 
must disband their anti-slavery society, and the 
executive committee were empowered to dis- 
charge any student from the institution with- 
out notice or trial. Tyranny over minds could 
go no further. All but the victims of this gag 
law were satisfied, and in their transcient hour 
of triumph the authors of it thought they had 
settled the whole matter. It is justice to the 
memory of Asa Mahan, one of the Trustees, 
to state that he protested against these despotic 
rules, but he was powerless to prevail against 
them. He then informed the students of the 
substance of these laws, and heartily s3 - mpa- 
thized with them in opposition to them. 

The first step taken by the Trustees under 
the new regulations was to make an order to 
dismiss Theodore D. Weld and W. T. Allan 
from the institution, whereupon H. B. Stan- 
ton, then a student of Lane, and since Secre- 
tary of War, called the attention of the students 
to the situation, saying, " The question now is, 
can we, under the new laws, remain in the in- 



stitution ? Let all who answer in the negative 
rise to their feet." Three-fourths of the stu- 
dents promptly rose and bade good-by to Lane, 
leaving her with a mill-stone around her neck 
that soon sunk her to rise no more, and her 
fate became that of all parties, politicians and 
institutions that only know enough to step in 
other people's tracks and follow them to de- 
struction, because the} - happen to be big ones. 
And here it may be meet to say that repub- 
lican institutions, to be consistent with their 
principles, should accept no political rule or 
dogma or faith, except on its positive merits, 
regardless of what interested parties may say 
or pretend to. As long as they do this, and 
dispense even-handed justice to every interest 
and every individual, so long will sucli a gov- 
ernment stand, if it is to the end of time, and 
it is not too much to add that no government, 
of whatsoever form, ever went into decadence 
that had not by its contempt for the rights of 
its own subjects, deserved first their apathy and 
lastly their antagonism. 

Rufus Lumry was of French Huguenot an- 
cestry. He was born in Rensselaerville, N. Y., at 
the close of the last century. He united with 
the Methodists, and became a minister among 
them at his maturity. In 1835, he took radi- 
cal anti-slavery grounds at Princeton, 111., for 
which he was arraigned before the conference 
and required to desist. This his conscience 
forbade, and he severed his connection with the 
church and joined the Wesleyans. Subse- 
quently he was condemned to suffer death on 
board a steamboat, for preaching abolition 
sentiments, and given half an hour for prep- 
aration. He was calmer than his accusers, for 
he told them he was ready, but would not re- 
lent, while they reconsidered and did not kill 
him. He was a co-worker with Owen Lovejoy, 
Z. Eastman, I. Codding and others, and with 
them was kicked, buffeted and despised by the 
populace. The year 1862 found him in Colo- 
rado, pursuing his work of reform, where he 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



65 



was accidentally drowned in crossing a mount- 
ain torrent. 

H. H. Himnan was born in Connecticut in 
1822, graduated at Willoughbj Medical Col- 
lege in 1846; came to Illinois in 1849, was or- 
dained to the ministry and went as a mission- 
ary to Africa in 1860. In 1866, he returned 
and labored as a home missionary in Wiscon- 
sin till 1873, and the next year came to Wheat- 
on, 111. His first vote for President was for 
Birney in 1S44. He always took radical 
ground on the slavery question, advocating its 
universal and unconditional abolition by the 
Government. He helped organize the first 
Republican party, and start their first paper in 
Livingston County. He always assisted fugi- 
tive slaves to get their liberty, and did not con- 
sider himself a violator of law by so doing, as 
he looked upon all laws to enslave them as void. 
He believes in Divine Law as the true basis of 
civil law — in the prohibition of the liquor 
traffic — the suppression of secret societies, and 
the substitution of international arbitration for 
war. Mr. Hinman's home is in Wheaton, 111. 

J. C. Webster. The pastorates of ministers in 
" ye olden time," were longer than the}' are now. 
Rev. Josiah Webster presided over his flock at 
Hampton, N. H.. about thirty years, and during 
this term of ministerial service, his son, Jesse 
C. Webster, was born. It was in January, 1810. 
From him he inherited his Congregationalism, 
and his love for the ministerial calling. Even 
in that day, slavery was abhorred by benevolent 
men, and young Jesse also inherited this sen- 
timent from his father, who, with prophetic vis- 
ion, said that slavery was destined to be " blot- 
ted out in blood. " 

Mr. Webster graduated at the theological 
institution at Audover in 1832. About this 
time, a member of the British Parliament came 
to the place to lecture, named George Thomp- 
son. To the conservative element, he was a 
fire-brand, but many conscientious young men 
did not view him in that light, and Mr. Web- 



ster was one of these. He identified himself 
with the agitators, and was reproved by the 
professors of Andover for it, and even rebuked 
for walking arm in arm with Rev. A. A. Phelps 
because he was a coworker with Thompson. 
Mr. Webster left the seminary with its parting 
blessing, cum grano, and soon after delivered 
an abolition lecture, getting pay for the same 
in eggs, unsavory as they were, hurled at his 
head. He next became pastor of a Congrega- 
tional Church at Hopkinton, Mass., and during 
his long term there, advocated the cause of the 
slave and became President of the American 
Church Anti-Slavery Society, the object of 
which was the exclusion of pro-slavery senti- 
ments from the church. From that day to the 
present, he has been true to the cause, and like 
other Abolitionists has become noted for what 
was once considered a weakness, and he has 
recently been honored with the title of D. D. 
His home is Wheaton, 111. 

James B. Walker is one of the well-preserved 
specimens of the pioneer preacher, editor and 
Abolitionist, so few of whom are now among us 
to take us back to early da3 - s when men had 
not sought out so many inventions to subordi- 
nate true merit to the control of pretentious 
purposes. He was born in Philadelphia in July, 
1805, but b} 7 the death of his father, which took 
place before his birth, his mother was thrown 
into the generous household of her parents, who 
lived twenty miles from Fort Pitt (now Pitts- 
burgh), and here young James' first resolutions 
fastened upon his childish mind to live, and 
grow from the log cabin in which he dwelt to 
the varied positions which he has honored in 
his long and eventful life 

He began his career clad in garments spun. 
woven, cut and made by his mother, on the 
frontier with the first rudiments of science dis- 
tilled into his mind in a log schoolhouse by a 
pedagogue with a rod in one hand and a spell- 
ing-book in the other, and when the former was 
once used on him, Mr. Walker still remembers 



86 



HISTORY OF DD PAGE COUNTY. 



the rueful looks and illy- concealed indications 
of sympathy which little Sarah Trovillo mani- 
fested on the occasion, which a thousand- fold 
atoned for the disgrace of the whipping which 
only hurt for a few minutes, while Sarah's inno- 
cent regrets often call back the flowers of spring 
to blossom again in midwinter. 

Having graduated at this school, young 
James was set to work in a nail factory in 
Pittsburgh, where he passed the red-hot iron 
rods from the furnace to the workmen. While 
thus employed, a benevolent gentlemen, visiting 
the shop, saw something in him that attracted 
his attention, and gave him a silver half-dollar. 
It made him feel richer than he has ever felt 
since. 

During these tender 3 T ears, Mr. Walker says 
he felt afraid to pass the house of a certain 
blacksmith in the night because he was an infi- 
del. 

Having remained at work in the nail factory 
till the din of hammers there impaired his 
hearing for a time, he was mercifully taken 
from the place and set to work as a store boy 
at Hookstown. near the borders of Virginia. 
It was a rough place, and was universally 
known by the epithet of " The Devil's Half 
Acre." Mr. Walker speaks of the disgusting 
scenes of drunkenness and fighting that he saw 
during his two years' residence at the place, 
sometimes disfiguring and crippling those en- 
gaged in them for life. 

The next change in the life of young Walker 
was to apprentice him to Messrs. Eichbaum & 
Johnston, who published the Pittsburgh 
Gazette — the first newspaper published West of 
the Alleghany Mountains. It was edited by 
Morgan Neville. This occupation opened up a 
new field for the genius of the young lad, whose 
talents had hitherto been wasted on pursuits 
for which he was neither mentally nor physic- 
ally fitted. Here he remained five years, in 
which time he learned the printer's trade, 
and received the religious teachings of the 



Scotch Secession Church, of which his mother, 
whose home was now at Pittsburgh, was 
a member. Mr. Walker speaks of early 
Methodism, as it was then, as follows : " The 
men wore a coat of the Quaker form, 
and the women all wore the Quaker, or 
Methodist bonnet. To be a Methodist in those 
days, was to come out from the world in a 
sense not understood at the present time. 
When a young woman was converted, all orna- 
ments were laid aside." 

While at work on the Gazette, Mr. Walker 
says he sent a contribution to the Evening 
Post, of Philadelphia, which was rejected, but 
he reserved the same for publication in a paper 
of his own, which acquisition — long ago a 
reality — seemed even then a distant possibility 
in his ambitious imagination. 

Mr. Walker's next change was to go to New 
York City. He made the journey on foot — 300 
miles in ten days, carrying his pack swung 
from a staff across his shoulder. 

From thence he went to Philadelphia, and, 
like Benjamin Franklin a century before him. 
followed type-setting. After remaining here 
awhile, he again returned to New York, and 
obtained employment for a short season, in the 
capacity of clerk for the celebrated M. M. 
Noah, who had established the first daily paper 
ever issued in New York. Its first name was 
Noah's Arh, which was subsequently changed 
to the Courier and Enquirer. His term of 
service, however, soon ceased with Mr. Noah, 
as he sold out his paper and became Judge of 
the Court of Sessions. On parting with young 
Walker, he gave him a letter recommending 
him to Mr. Booth, a celebrated star actor. His 
son, in 1865, was the murderer of Abraham 
Lincoln. Mr. Booth treated the young appli- 
cant with deserved attention, but informed him 
that there were so many applicants from young- 
men wishing to try their fortunes on the stage, 
that he could not give him any encourage- 
ment. 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



87 



Mr. Walker's means uow became exhausted, 
and he sold a cloak to get money to pay a 
washing bill. He crossed the ferry to Hobo- 
ken, and started into the country on foot, not 
knowing whither he was going. He was soon 
overtaken by a farmer, who gave him an invi- 
tation to ride. In conversation with him, he 
learned that a schoolmaster was wanted in his 
district. He obtained the situation, and with 
it relief. Mr. Walker, having finished his en- 
gagement, subsequently returned to the West 
and bought a half-interest in the Western 
Courier, a paper published in the Western 
Reserve, Ohio. 

Soon after this, he made the acquaintance of 
John Brown, Theodore Weld and other early 
Abolitionists, and espoused the cause in which 
these men were engaged, in which cause he 
was the victim of a determined mob at Hud- 
son, Ohio, while he was a student at the West, 
em Reserve College at the place, which was 
shortly after his connection with the Western 
Courier. He had been invited to give an anti- 
slavery lecture at the Congregational Church. 
It was known beforehand that violence would 
be resorted to to prevent it, and the preacher, 
either through fear or from other motives, did 
not attend. He might have been like the 
hunter who saw an animal in the woods that, 
in the bushes, looked some like a calf and 
some like a deer, and prudentially fired at it 
with such an aim as to miss it if a calf and 
hit it if a deer. In like manner, man}' preachers 
took safe ground in the pioneer days of aboli- 
tionism. But, whatever were the motives of 
the minister in question, his wife nailed her 
colors to the masthead and boldly took her 
seat in the church. Young Walker ''laid on " 
heavy and unsparing. The mob outside hurled 
stones, battered the doors, broke in all the 
windows, and, not content with this, threw fire 
through the apertures. By this time the audi- 
ence had all fled, but Mr. Walker and the hero- 
ine wife of the minister were the last to leave 



the building. He was not molested on his 
retreat — perhaps her presence saved him. 

After graduating at this college, he was 
employed as editor of the Ohio Observer, at 
Cleveland. Subsequently, Mr. Walker removed 
to Cincinnati, where he established a religious 
paper, The Watchman, under the patronage of 
the Synods of Ohio, Cincinnati and Indiana. 
Dr. Stowe, Jonathan Blanchard and J. Benton 
engaged to obtain 1,600 subscribers for his 
paper. Dr. Beecher and Dr. Stowe were then 
professors in Lane Seminary at Cincinnati 
which was thoroughly pro-slavery, and ulti- 
mately went down under the teachings of abo- 
litionism. Meantime, Mr. Walker did not tone 
down his editorials as to the subject of slavery 
in the columns of the Watchman, though he 
was requested to do so by some of its time- 
serving supporters. 

While engaged in these editorial duties, he 
wrote and published his book, " Plan of Sal- 
vation." It has been translated into six lan- 
guages, and is a text book in the Theological 
institutions of Europe and America. 

This was the crowning work of his life, but 
since that time he has been pastor of a church 
in Mansfield and Sandusky, Ohio, and latterly 
Professor of Mental Science at Wheaton Col- 
lege, his present home, where he is now enjoy- 
ing a green old age, beloved by all, but most 
by those who know him best. He has no chil- 
dren, but has adopted, raised and educated 
thirteen, and fitted them for responsible posi- 
tions in life. 

Washington and Adams belonged to the 
old Federal party. Jefferson, though in har- 
mony with them as to the fundamental prin- 
ciples of Government, yet through his excessive 
zeal for the broadest forms of liberty, laid a deep 
foundation for a departure from the old Fed- 
eral conservative policj\ He was radical, san- 
guine, and his mind was read}' to indorse the 
verdict of popular convictions, even though 
sometimes perhaps hasty and ill digested. It 



w 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



was due to his diplomacy and his public policy 
combined, that the declaration of the war of 
1812 was made against England, which declar- 
ation was in violation of the sentiment of New 
England, as history abundant!} 7 proves. He 
had been Minister to Prance during the tran- 
sient glories of the Republic, which succeeded 
her revolution of 1798, and his s3 - mpathies be- 
ing entirely with her he never lost an occasion 
to give England a thrust in the conflict that 
followed between her and France, and our 
declaration of war against England helped 
France, besides settling old scores on our own 
account. 

The war won nothing in theory, but more 
than any one could have hoped for in practical 
results and military glory. Jackson's victory 
at New Orleans, though achieved after peace 
had been signed, placed him at the head of the 
accumulating force that was gathering strength 
in opposition to the old Federal policy of Wash- 
ington, and when these two forms were arrayed 
against each other with John Quincy Adams, 
the standard-bearer for the time-honored policy 
of his father, and Gen. Jackson the exponent of 
the Jeffersonian policy, the latter won the day. 
Jackson became President, and the beloved 
champion of popular rights par excellence. 
Under him the Democratic party became strong 
and invincible, till an issue came up bound to 
crush all partisan organizations. Meantime 
the Western States were rapidly being settled, 
and were destined to become the base of oper- 
ations, from which the champions of each side 
of the final issue between slavery and anti- 
slavery should inaugurate their polic}', and 
put their respective machinery in motion. 

The Whig party, whose success had been but 
transient, was going to seed. It had in its ranks 
too many Abolitionists to live permanently, 
besides its banking policy had been disastrous 
to the country. But a new party rose into 
prominence out of the teachings of the men 
whose brief biographies have just been given, 



and in the State of Illinois this policy gained 
its first substantial success politically, and set 
in motion a train of events as to State policy, 
that soon found its way into the national policy. 
The circumstances are these : 

Soon after the murder of Lovejoy at Alton, 
a meeting was called at Chicago, not as a direct 
abolition meeting, but to characterize the ac- 
tion of the mob that killed him as a blow aimed 
against the constitutional right of the freedom 
of the press. 

Rev. F. Bascom (now living at Downer's 
Grove), the late Dr. C. V. Dyer, Philo Carpen- 
ter and Calvin DeWolf (now living at Chicago) 
were the leading spirits of this meeting. A 
watch was kept outside, lest a mob might assail 
them during their deliberations, but no one 
molested them. 

This was the first meeting ever held in Chi- 
cago that called in question the right of any- 
body to oppose slavery agitation by any means, 
fair or foul. 

As has already been recorded in the biog- 
raphy of Benjamin Lundy, he came to Illinois 
after the death of Lovejoy, and established a 
paper in defense of constitutional rights. 

After his (Lundy's) death in 1839, his paper 
was continued by Hooper Warren and Z. 
Eastman, the latter now a resident of May- 
wood, Cook Co., 111. 

In 1840, an Anti-slavery Presidential ticket 
was formed in Illinois, in Fulton County, with 
James Birney as standard-bearer. Here was 
the beginning ; but more practical results, 
through Illinois men, followed in due course. 

Warren and Eastman's paper was continued 
at La Salle, on the same press that the old vet- 
eran Lundy had consecrated to the cause, till 
1842, when Rev. F. Bascom invited Mr. East- 
man to come to Chicago, Dr. Dyer being the 
bearer of the invitation. It was accepted, and 
Mr. Eastman transferred his type and presses 
thither the same year (1842). and continued the 
paper under the name of the Western Citizen. 




/&^y—y^y 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



89 



On declaring its policy, the Citizen said : 
" We see no reason why our Government should 
be overturned, our Constitution trampled under 
foot or the Union dissolved, or why the church 
organizations should be destroyed. 
We wish it understood that our course is re- 
formatory, and not destructive." 

Icabod Codding soon became associated with 
Mr. Eastman, and took the field as lecturer. 
Chief Justice Chase said he was the most elo- 
quent orator he ever heard. The widow of Mr. 
Codding is still living at Lockport, 111. 

A convention was soon held in Chicago, at 
Chapman's Hall, on the southwest corner of 
La Salle and Randolph Streets, at which the 
new party sat in council, recognizing not only 
the usual methods of propagating their senti- 
ments, but recognizing the Underground Rail- 
road as a means worthy to be used. From this 
time henceforward, the Liberty party always 
put candidates in the field for State elections 
and for Congress as fast as the principles of 
the part}- gained a foothold in Congressional 
districts. 

The Wilmot Proviso, the Nebraska Bill, 
Squatter Sovereignty, Fugitive Slave Laws, Re- 
peal of the Missouri Compromise, John Brown's 
Raid, and the Dred Scot Decision followed in 
their immutable train and augmented agitation 
till two great Illinois champions were brought 
into the arena destined, the one to rend asun- 
der the Democratic party, and the other to be 
the representative of the new party that was to 
rise into being amidst the din and strife and 
contending emotions that racked the brains of 
politicians opposed to moral sentiment. 
While numerical force was centering into the 
hands of the Liberty party during these years, 
the old Whig party still kept up its organiza- 
tion. Hon. E. B. Washburn was one of their 
number, and owed his first election to Con- 
gress to votes from the Liberty party, who 
joined with the Whigs, and astonished the 
stronghold of Democracy by electing him. 



This signal defeat for the Democrats never was 
recovered from ; Mr. Washburn's heavy blows 
fell with great force upon the party to which 
he was opposed, and will descend into history 
as a monument to perpetuate the memory of 
Illinois as the vanguard in the new order of 
things about to take place. The Liberty party 
by this time held the situation in their own 
hands. Not that they outnumbered the Demo- 
crats, but because they held the balance of 
power. The Whigs could do nothing without 
them, and spread their sails to their breezes. 
They were potent in the Legislature, for these, 
too, they held the balance of power, and from 
this time onward they continued to circumvent 
their opponents till strong enough to take the 
field alone in their own name and with their 
own strength. Mr. Douglas' term in the South 
being about to expire, a new election was nec- 
essary in 1858. His joint debate with Mr. 
Lincoln at that time is still fresh in the minds 
of Illinois citizens. Mr. Douglas was elected 
by a majority of eight votes in the House of 
Representatives, which decided the election by 
their vote, but Mr. Lincoln had a majority of 
4,000 popular votes in the State, and won the 
laurels during this debate that made him can- 
didate for the Presidency in 1860. 

An anecdote is told of Mr. Lincoln concern- 
ing his supposed temerity in running against 
Mr. Douglas for the Senate, as follows : An 
inquirer says to him : " You don't expect to 
beat Douglas, do you ?" To which Mr. Lincoln 
responded that it was with him as it was with 
the boys who made an attack on a hornets' 
nest. " What do you expect to do, boys ?" 
You don't expect to take that hornets' nest, do 
you ?" " We don't know that we shall exactly 
take it," replied the boys, " but we shall be- 
devil the nest." So said Mr. Lincoln, "If we 
don't capture Douglas, we shall bedevil his 
nest." 

Mr. Douglas' magnanimity to Mr. Lincoln 
after his election to the Presidency is well 



90 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



known. He, too, was an Illinois man. He was 
the instrument by which the partisan ties that 
originally bound the party to a wrong princi- 
ple were rent asunder, when he became the 
candidate of its Northern wing for President 
at the same time that Lincoln was candidate for 
the Liberty party in 1860. 

Every soldier who went from Illinois to fight 
against the rebellion may well feel pride in 
the part their State took in it, not only in being 
the first State to define the new policy of the 
Government, but in furnishing the great states- 
man to direct the arm of the nation when raised 
in defense of those rights which are essential 
to the grandeur of a State, and especially to 
Illinois, whose central position binds its inter- 
ests alike to every part of the countiy. The 
record of Du Page County soldiers in the con- 
flict that decided the question that Illinois 
statesmen had been the first to give form and 
system to, is a noble one. 

And, though the count}* is small, her soldiers 
took part in the most decisive campaigns and 
battles of the war, and those who have re- 
turned and are now living, are among our most 



highly-esteemed fellow-citizens — efficient in the 
arts of peace as they were formidable on the 
field of battle. 

The same may be said, as a rule, of all the 
soldiers who went from the North, and it may 
also be said that this fair fame is all the more 
to be prized, because so manj- share it : but let 
it not be forgotten that the Liberty' party of 
Illinois inserted the first wedge of disintegra- 
tion into the slavery plank of the Democratic 
party. This plank was a fungus growth on the 
trunk of their tree. Jefferson, from whom they 
claim origin, planted no such seed in its virgin 
soil, but it grew there as cancers sometimes 
grow in stalwart frames. The surgeon's knife 
has removed it. All this is simple history, and 
not partisan pleading in any sense. 

Both the officers and men composing the 
Union amy, were made up from each political 
party, and partisan issues were lost sight of in 
the transcendent crisis thrust upon the country 
by the hostile shots fired at the American flag 
that waved over Port Sumter, near the spot 
where Fort Moultrie had repulsed the British 
in 1776. 



CHAPTER VI. 



RECORD OF DU PAGE COUNl'Y IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 



IN the war with Mexico, in 1846-47, the 
quota of Illinois was six regiments, which 
were the first ever raised in this State for 
regular service in the United States. Thirty- 
four years had passed since that time, and 
though the art of war had gone into disuse, 
when Abraham Lincoln made a call, April 
16, 1861, for 75,000 troops to serve three 
months, ten regiments from Illinois responded, 
though their quota was but six. The number- 
ing began where regiments for the Mexican 
service left off, consequently the number of the 



first regiment raised for service in the war of 
the rebellion was numbered seven. 

SEVENTH REGIMENT. 

The Seventh Regiment of Illinois Infantry 
was among President Lincoln's first call for 
three months' men. It was first organized 
April 25, 1861. Twenty-four men from Du 
Page County enrolled themselves in it as pio- 
neers in a new branch of industry in which they 
mostly if not all as yet were untaught. That 
they soon (like others who followed) became 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



91 



efficient, the result proved. After the term for 
which this regiment had enlisted had expired, 
many of the men re-enlisted, and the regiment 
re-organized as veterans for three years' service 
at Camp Yates, Springfield, July 25, 1861. Its 
first destination was Ironton, where it was 
placed under the command of Gen. Prentiss. 
Cape Girardeau was the next point reached, and 
Fort Holt, Ky., its next. 

On the 3d of February, it reached Fort Henry, 
from which place it started on the 12th for Fort 
Donelson, to take part in the siege of that post, 
then in the hands of the rebels, and here it was 
engaged in the last charge made against the 
enemy's works. After the capture of this fort, 
it was dispatched to the Tennessee River, and, 
the following April, took part in the battle of 
Shiloh, and subsequently in the battle of Corinth, 
which took place October 3, 4, during both of 
which days the Seventh was much of the time 
under fire. From the 18th of December, to the 
following year, 1863, in May, it was mounted 
and engaged in raiding and skirmishing. On 
the 22d of December, the regiment re-enlisted 
as veterans. On the 11th of January, 1864, it 
was furloughed for thirty days to rest from its 
hitherto unceasing toils, at the expiration of 
which term it was sent to Pulaski, where, being 
again mounted, it went into scouting service in 
Northern Alabama. 

On the 5th of October, 1864, it was in the 
sanguinary battle of Altoona Pass, where it lost 
143 men. On the 9th of November, it joined 
Sherman's army in its march to the sea, after 
the successful accomplishment of which exploit 
the Seventh, together with its other companions 
in arms, marched in review before President 
Lincoln in Washington, who there beheld the 
men whose hardihood had won the cause for 
which such sacrifices had been made. 

From there the Seventh proceeded to Louis- 
ville, where it was mustered out July 9, 1865. 

Following are the names of the men in this 
regiment : 



COMPANY A. 

Bates, Allen, Wayne, enlisted and mustered in July 
25, 1861; killed at Shiloh April 6, 1862. 

The following were three months' men from 
Du Page County, enlisted April 22 and mus- 
tered in the 25th, 1861 : 

Boutwell, C. M.; Goodwin, J., Musician; Ham- 
mond, S. F.; Oyer, Joseph; Smith, A. R. ; Thomp- 
son, T. J. ; Wilson, O. R. 

Three years' service : 
Trick, Richard A., Wayne. 

company c. 

Bader, Emil, Naperville. 

Battles, Edwin D., Turner Junction. 

Erhardt, John, Naperville, re-enlisted as veteran; 
promoted Corporal. 

Gilhower, John, Naperville. 

Givler, David B., Naperville, Musician; re-enlisted 
as veteran. 

Hamilton, Jesse, Naperville; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Lamb, Lyman, York, discharged May 6, 1862. 

Mitchell, Robert, Warrenville; re-enlisted as vet- 
eran. 

Waddlehoffer, Charles, Naperville ; re-enlisted as 
veteran. 

Stafflinger, John, Naperville. 

Ward, Stephen D., Warrenville, killed at Rome; 
Ga., August 21, 1864. 
(All the above were enlisted July 18, and mustered 

in the 25th, 1861.) 

Ward, Charles, Warrenville, enlisted September 27, 
1861; discharged May 19, 1862. 

Fisher, William, Naperville, enlisted and mustered 
in December 23, 1863. 

Hubreht, John B., Naperville, enlisted and mustered 
in December 23, 1863; promoted Corporal; killed 
at Altoona, Ga., October 5, 1864. 

Vorhes, William W., Warrenville, enlisted and 
mustered in December 22, 1863; promoted Ser- 
geant. 

TENTH REGIMENT. 

The Tenth Regiment of Illinois Infantry was 
mustered into service at Cairo April 29, 1861. 
It had but one volunteer from Du Page County: 

COMPANY C 

Goodell, Charles, York, enlisted and mustered in 
August 31, 1864. 



92 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



TWELFTH REGIMENT. 

The Twelfth Kegiment of Illinois Infantry 
was organized at Cairo, and mustered in Au- 
gust 1, 1861. It had two volunteers from Du 
Page Count}' : 

COMPANY I. 

Bolin, Dennis. Winfield. enlisted and mustered in 

October 25, 1864. 
Hannesey, James, Wayne, enlisted and mustered in 

October 25, 1864. 

THIRTEENTH REGIMENT. 

The Thirteenth Regiment of Illinois Infantry. 
Company K, of this regiment was from Du 
Page County. It was organized at Dixon May 
9, 1861, and mustered into service on the 24th. 
It was first ordered to Caseyville, 111., thence 
to Rolla, Mo., and the succeeding October (the 
25th) was ordered forward to join Fremont's 
army at Springfield. 

Gen. Fremont being now removed, the plan 
of the campaign was changed, and the Thir- 
teenth was ordered back to Rolla, where it re- 
mained till December 12. From there it was 
ordered to Salem to guard against guerrillas for 
two weeks, after which it returned to Rolla, 
where it remained till March 6, 1862, when it 
was sent to join the army of Gen. Curtis, against 
whose army Price's rebels were making demon- 
strations. The junction was made with Gen. 
Curtis on the 18th of March, and on the 8th of 
April the army started for Helena, Ark. The 
march was one unremitting struggle through 
mud and water, and it was not till the 
last of July that their destination was reached. 
Here the regiment was attached to Gen. Steel's 
division of Sherman's army, then about to 
move against Vicksburg. the key to the Lower 
Mississippi, and as such a strategic point of im- 
portance second to no other in the Confederacy. 
On the 22d of December, 1862, an immense 
fleet of transports hung along the banks of the 
river, where the Thirteenth had enjoyed a brief 
respite from the toils of marching. Into these 
the men were closely packed and turned down 



the turbid waters of this stream till the mouth 
of the Yazoo was reached. Here under a con- 
voy of gunboats the}' steamed up this tribu- 
tary to make an attack on Vicksburg from the 
east. On the morning of the 27th. the line of 
battle was formed, the Thirteenth occupying the 
left wing of the army in Gen. Steel's division. 
The first day was occupied in making ap- 
proaches to the formidable works of the enemy, 
and nothing more was done than to drive in 
their pickets. The next morning opened with 
a skirmish, but in the afternoon the Thirteenth 
and Sixteenth, led b}- Gen. Wyman, silenced 
some of the batteries of the enemy, while doing 
which Gen. Wyman fell mortally wounded, but 
he still encouraged his men. All this was but 
an insignificant skirmish compared to the work 
to be accomplished before the stars and stripes 
could shadow the defiant town in the closer ap- 
proaches, to which death lurked in ominous 
silence. 

On the 29th, the desperate charge was made. 
'Twas upon the earthworks along the banks of 
Chickasaw Bayou. These were to be taken by 
storm, and before they could be reached, an 
open space must be traversed under fire from a 
sheltered foe from two directions. Into this 
terrible arena the Thirteenth led the way across 
two lines of rifle-pits, which they captured. 
This brought them within thirty rods of the 
frowning battlements yet to be taken. One 
hundred and seventy-seven of their men had 
fallen. To advance was death. The day was lost, 
and they retired in good order. The enemy 
were wild with delight, but the end was not yet. 

At Arkansas Post was a large depot of stores, 
and 5,000 rebel troops to guard them. Gen. 
McClernand was sent to take the place, and 
Gen. Steel's division, among whom was the 
Thirteenth, were a part of his forces. The at- 
tack was suddenly made, and a day's fighting 
was rewarded with the capture of the place, in- 
cluding 5,000 prisoners. This irreparable loss 
to the enemy was soon succeeded bj' another 



HISTORY OF OCT PAGE COUNTY. 



93 



severe one at Greenville, Miss., in which the 
Thirteenth had a hand, after which it shared 
th<' triumph of the capture of Jackson, the capi- 
tal of the State of Mississippi, from whence it 
was ordered again to Vicksburg. and there 
manned the trenches which environed the place 
amidst a tempest of shot till it finally surren- 
dered. July 13, 1863 — a monument of tena- 
cious hardihood in triumph over audacious 
courage almost unparalleled in the records of 
modern warfare. 

Chattanooga was the next principal scene of 
battle for the Thirteenth. It guarded the bag- 
gage train of the army to this place ; was fore- 
most in the capture of Tuscumbia, and lent a 
hand in taking Lookout Mountain, which mir- 
acculous achievement was soon followed by the 
victory of Mission Ridge, where the Thirteenth 
captured more prisoners of the Eighteenth Ala- 
bama than their own force numbered. The 
enemy now were in full retreat, and the Thir- 
teenth foremost in pursuit of them, but at Ring- 
gold Gap they made a stand, and, owing to the 
natural strength of their position, held out- 
forces at bay. In the first charge that followed, 
many were killed, among whom was Capt. Wal- 
ter Rlanchard, of Downer's Grove. 

But a desperate encounter was 3-et in store 
for this regiment. At Madison Station, Ala., 
where it was posted, after being reduced by the 
casualties of war to 350 men fit for duty, it 
was surrounded by more than one thousand 
of the enercry's cavalry, with three pieces of 
artillery. After two hours' fighting, it made 
good its retreat, but left behind sixty-six men 
as prisoners. The enemy's loss was sixty killed 
and wounded. 

In the summer of 1864, the regiment returned 
to their homes to rest, but soon re-enlisted in 
the Fifty-sixth. The entire loss during the 
war. from all causes, was 565 men. 

company n. 
Babcock. Frederick W.. Naperville, enlisted and 
mustered in August 24. 1864. 



Thatcher, Nelson L., enlisted and mustered in 
May 24, 1861; mustered out June 18, 1864. 

COMPANY K. 

Captains. — Blanchard, Walter, Downer's Grove, 
date of rank May 24, 1861, died December 4, 1863. 
from wounds received at Ringgold Gap; Cole, Jor- 
dan J., Downer's Grove, date of rank December 4, 
1863, promoted from Second Lieutenant to First 
Lieutenant. Term expired June 18, 1864. 

First Lieutenants.— Bsd\ey, Eli, Naperville, date 
of rank, December 29, 1862, promoted from Ser- 
geant to Second Lieutenant. Term expired June 
18, 1864; Hobson, Meritt 8., Naperville, resigned 
January 22, 1862. 

Second Lieutenant. — Naper, George A., Naper- 
ville, date of rank January 22, 1862, promoted from 
Sergeant. Killed at Vicksburg December 29, 1862. 

Sergeants. — Page, Edmund E. Lisle, enlisted June 
25, mustered out June 18, 1864, as First Sergeant; 
Ketcham, Hiram, Winfleld, enlisted June 25, 1861, 
mustered out June 18, 1864, wounded; Gladding, 
John G., Winfield. enlisted June 25, 1861, discharged 
December 25, 1862; disability. 

Corporals. — Pollard, Reuben B., Downer's Grove, 
enlisted June 25, 1861, discharged March 25, 1863; 
Blanchard, Franklin, Downer's Grove, enlisted June 
25, 1861, mustered out June 18, 1864, as Sergeant; 
Farrar, Eugene W.,Downer'sGrove, enlisted June 25, 
1861, mustered out June 18, 1864, as Sergeant; Riley, 
Patrick, Downer's Grove, enlisted June 25, 1861, Col- 
or Sergeant, killed at Ringgold November 27. 1863; 
Kenyon, Israel, Naperville, enlisted June 25, 1861, dis- 
charged February 20, 1862, disability; Hyde, Charles 
W., Naperville. enlisted June 25, 1861, died June 15, 
1863, wounds; Ball, Lewis C, Naperville, enlisted 
June 25, 1861, mustered out June 18, 1864. 

Musicians. — Perry, Merritt, Downer's Grove, en- 
listed June 25, 1861, transferred to non-commis- 
sioned staff September 10, 1861, as Principal Musi- 
cian; Sucher, James W., Downer's Grove, enlisted 
June 25, 1861, mustered June 18, 1864; Kenyon, 
John M., York, enlisted June 25, 1861, transferred 
to non-commissioned staff November 20, 1863, as 
Principal Musician. 

Privates. — Beckman, Charles, Naperville, June 
25, 1861, discharged March 10, 1864, lost right arm; 
Bader, Adolph. Naperville, June 25, 1861, prisoner 
of war, mustered out June 18, 1865; Bolles, Charles 
E., Turner Junction, enlisted and mustered in March 
8, 1862. discharged February 10, 1863, for wounds; 
Beesing, Lewis, Naperville, June 25, 1861. died 
August 4, 1863; Ballou, Daniel W., Naperville, June 



94 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



25, 1861, trans, to Tenth Missouri Cavalry, promoted 
Second Lieutenant; Blanchard, William, Downer's 
Grove, June 25, 1861, discharged April 18, 1862, dis- 
ability; Boettger, Charles, Du Page Count}-, June 
25, 1861, mustered out June 18, 1864; Beuck, Fritz, 
Du Page County, June 25, 1861, mustered out June 
18, 1864; Balliman, William, Downer's Grove, June 
25, 1861, mustered out June 18, 1864; Baugertz, Lor- 
entz, Downer's Grove, June 25, 1861, discharged 
July 25, 1862, disability; Bolles, Essec, Du Page 
County, June 25, 1861, mustered out June 18, 1864, 
as Corporal; Carpenter, Charles, Downer's Grove, 
June 25, 1861, mustered out June 18, 1864; Daniels, 
John, Naperville, June 25, 1861, trans, to Tenth 
Missouri Cavalry, October 1, 1861; Deuel, Charles 
B., York, June 25, 1861, mustered out June 18, 1864; 
Dirr, Adam L., Naperville, June 25, 1861, mustered 
out June 18, 1864; Doerr, Phillip, Naperville, June 
25, 1861, trans, to Tenth Missouri Cavalry, October 
1, 1861; Fowler, Oliver S., York, June 25, 1861, 
mustered out June 18, 1864, as Corporal; Farrell, 
James, Du Page County, June 25, 1861, re-enlisted 
as veteran January 1, 1864, trans, to Company I, 
Fifty-sixth Illinois, prisoner of war; Ferris, Charles 
EL, Lisle, June 25, 1861, died November 26, 1861 ; 
Greggs, Joseph, Du Page County, June 25, 1801, 
discharged September 18, 1863, disability; Griffith, 
Charles, Warrenville, June 25, 1861, mustered out 
June 18, 1864; Gokey, Lewis, Warrenville, June 25, 
1861, re-enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864, trans, to 
Company I, Fifty-sixth Illinois; Howard, Abraham 
C, Downer's Grove, June 25, 1861, trans, to Invalid 
Corps September 1, 1863; Hart, Matthias, Naper- 
ville, June 25, 1861, mustered out June 18, 1864, as 
Corporal; Holley, James L., Du Page County, June 
25, 1861, mustered out June 18, 1864; Hunt. Henry, 
Downer's Grove, June 25, 1861, discharged Febru- 
ary 20, 1862, disability; Howland, Charles E., Lisle, 
June 25, 1861, died October 25, 1861; Hintz, Mi- 
chael, Du Page County, June 25, 1861, discharged 
March 30, 1863. lost his arm; Hartigan, Patrick. Du 
Page County, June 25, 1861, mustered out June 18, 
1864; Harris, Charles, Du Page County, June 25, 
1861, re-enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864, prisoner 
of war; Henrick, Christian, Brush Hill, enlisted and 
mustered in June 25, 1861, mustered out June 18, 
1864; Johnson, William. Du Page County, June 25, 
1861, re-enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864; Kuchel, 
Mathias, Lisle, June 25, 1861, mustered out June 
18, 1864; Kreitzer, Ferdinand, Du Page County, 
June 25, 1861, discharged October 1, 186', disability; 
Kniffin, Daniel Lisle, June 25, 1861, transferred to 



Invalid Corps; Kenyon, William J., Naperville, June 
25, 1861, died April 20, 1863; Miller, John F., Na- 
perville, June 25, 1861, prisoner of war, mustered 
out June 7, 1865; Neas, Baptiste, Naperville, June 
25, 1861, killed at Chickasaw Bayou December 29, 
1862; Naper, JohnN., June 25, 1861, discharged Jan- 
uary 1, 1864, disability; Neaderhauser, Daniel, Na- 
perville, June 24, 1861, died October 27, 1861; Potter, 
William, Naperville, June 25, 1861, trans, to Inva- 
lid Corps September 21, 1863; Potter, Robert K., 
Naperville, June 25, 1861, discharged May 26, 1863, 
disability; Rose, William E., Naperville, June 25, 
1861, mustered out June 18, 1864; Smith, Joseph, 
Lisle, enlisted and mustered in June 25, 1861, mus- 
tered out June 18, 1864; Snyder, Reuben, Naper- 
ville, June 25, 1861, died December 21, 1863, wounds; 
Sucher, Jacob, Downer's Grove, June 25, 1861, mus- 
tered out June 18, 1864; Shuester, William, Lisle, 
June 25, 1861, prisoner of war; Standage, Henry, 
Du Page County, June 25, 1861, reported dead; 
Turner, George, Downer's Grove, June 25, 1861, 
mustered June 18, 1864; Townsend, Lysander, York, 
June 25, 1861, discharged December 10, 1863, disa- 
bility; Tuttle, Charles, Du Page County, June 25, 
1861, died December 26, 1861; Toitlet, John, Dow- 
ner's Grove, June 25, 1861, prisoner of war; Wilflin, 
Christian, Du Page County, June 25, 1861, re-en- 
listed as veteran January 1, 1864, prisoner of war; 
Walters, Christian, Downer's Grove, June 25, 1861, 
mustered out June 18, 1864; Woods, Hollis, Win- 
field, June 25, 1861, died January 29, 1863, wounds; 
Webster, Charles, Lisle, June 25, 1861, mustered out 
June 18, 1864. 

Recruits— Griffith, Samuel, Warrenville, Sep- 
tember 10 1861, discharged February 7, 1863, disa- 
bility; Hubbard John B., Naperville, September 10, 
1861, trans, to Invalid Corps; Hall, Henry K., Na- 
perville, September 10, 1861, discharged November 
15, 1862, disability; Ketcham, Abraham, Winfield, 
October 1, 1861, re-enlisted as veteran; Prandleburg, 
Joseph, Du Page County, July 8, 1861, trans, to 
Company I, Fifty-sixth Illinois; Remmel, Matthias, 
Naperville, September 10, 1861, discharged May 26, 
1863, wounded in head; Roush, Jeremiah, Naper- 
ville, September 10, 1861, discharged August 11, 
1863, disability; Rose, William, October 1, 1862, dis- 
charged April 18, 1863, disability; Starnhagen, John, 
Du Page County, enlisted and mustered in July 21, 
1861, died May 24, 1862; Stevens, De Witt, Naper- 
ville, July 7, 1861, killed at Chickasaw Bayou, De- 
cember 29, 1862; Stark, Henry, Du Page County, 
enlisted and mustered in July 15, 1861, re-enlisted as 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



95 



veteran; Tennant, Joseph, Naperville, September 
10. 1861, re-enlisted as veteran; Tilden, Charles, 
Naperville, March 24, 1862, trans, to Company I, 
Fifty-sixth Illinois Infantry; Wescott, Theophilus, 
Warrenville, September 10, 1861, discharged October 
1, 1861, disability. 

FIFTEENTH REGIMENT. 

Fifteenth Rsgirnent of Illinois Infantry was 

organized at Freeport, 111., and mustered into 

service May 24, 1861, being the first in the 

State for the three years' service ; had four 

men from Du Page County. It was mustered 

out September 1, 1865, at Fort Leavenworth, 

Kan. 

company c. 

Truman, Ira, Milton, enlisted and mustered in May 

34, 1861; mustered out May 25, 1864. 
Truman. Austin B., Milton, enlisted and mustered 

in May 24, 1861; mustered out May 25, 1864. 

COMPANY E. 

Blaisdell, William E., Wayne, enlisted and mustered 
in May 24, 1861; discharged January 22, 1863. 

Watson, Edward, Wayne, enlisted and mustered in 
May 24, 1861; killed at Shiloh April 6, 1862. 

NINETEENTH REGIMENT. 

The Nineteenth Regiment of Illinois Infan- 
try in its formation dates from the opening of 
the war. Three companies of it, without wait- 
ing till men could be raised, were hurriedly 
sent to Cairo April 14, 1861, under Gen. Swift, 
to guard the place from a threatening attack. 
The regiment was completely organized and 
mustered into service at Chicago June 17, 
1861, and mustered out at the expiration of its 
term of service July 9, 1864. It had one man 
in it from Du Page County. 

company c. 

Miles, Martin. Wheaton, who remained in the serv- 
ice during its term. 

TWENTIETH REGIMENT. 

The Twentieth Regiment of Illinois Infantry 
was organized at Joliet May 14, and mustered 



in June 13, 1861. It took part in the siege of 
Fort Donelson February, 1862, and in the bat- 
tle of Shiloh the following April. It also was 
in many other engagements during the term of 
its service, till it was mustered out at Louis- 
ville, Ky., July 16, 1865, and arrived at Chi- 
cago the 19th for discharge. It had five men 
from Du Page County. 

COMPANY A. 

Scott, Silas C, First Sergeant, enlisted and mus- 
tered in October 10, 1864. 

Ewiug, Robert, Sergeant, Naperville, enlisted and 
mustered in October 12. 1864. 

Bocker, George B., Addison, enlisted and mustered 
in October 12, 1864. 

Wante, Lushing, Naperville, enlisted and mustered 
in October 12, 1864. 

COMPANY B. 

Neff, Martin, Du Page County, enlisted October 14, 
and mustered in the 28th, 1861; died at Cairo Sep- 
tember 2, 1863. 

TWENTY-THIRD REGIMENT. 

The Twenty-third Regiment of Illinois In- 
fantry, known as the Irish Brigade, was organ- 
ized at Chicago May 17, 1861, and mustered 
into service June 17, and mustered out July 
24, 1865. It had fifteen men from Du Page 
Count}' in its ranks as follows : 

COMPANY H. 

Bates, Francis, Wheaton, Sergeant. 

Watson, Casper W., Wheaton, Corporal.- 

Armbruster, Adam, Naperville. 

Austin N, Wheaton. 

Beardsley, Jerome G., Wheaton. 

Drullard, Thomas W., Wheaton. 

Getsch, Frank S., Milton. 

Georo, Serophine, Milton. 

Manning. Augustus, Warrenville. 

Kovey, Fred, Milton. 

Kinyon, Albert R., York. 

Ott, Peter, Milton. 

Ulcch, Herman W. A., Wheaton. 

Wilskin, Dominee, Naperville. 

Teates, J. K. P. 

The above all enlisted in March, 1865, and 
were mustered out with the reariment. 



96 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



THIRTY-THIRD REGIMENT. 

The Thirty-third Regiment of Illinois Infan- 
try, known as the Normal Regiment, because it 
was composed largely of teachers and stu- 
dents, was organized at Camp Butler in Sep- 
tember, 1861, and mustered into service the 
same month. It moved immediately to Iron- 
ton, Mo., where it remained during the winter, 
doing occasional scout service and fighting the 
battle of Fredericksburg. Iu March, 1862, it 
moved southward and joined Gen. Curtis' 
army, and took part in the battle of Cache. 
After being engaged here in several skirmishes 
with the enemy, it moved to Pilot Knob, Mo., 
arriving in October, 1862. 

November 15, it moved to Van Buren, Ark., 
in Col. Harris' brigade, Brig. Gen. W. J. Ben- 
ton's division of Gen. Davidson's corps, and 
made a winter campaign in Southeast Missouri, 
passing through Patterson, Van Buren, Alton, 
West Plain, Eminence and Centreville, and 
returned to Bellevue Valley, near Pilot Knob, 
about March 1, 1863. 

It was then ordered to St. Genevieve, Mo., 
where, with the command, it embarked for Mil- 
liken's Bend, La. It was now attached to the 
First Brigade, First Division, Thirteenth Army 
Corps, and with it took part in the battles of 
Port Gibson, Champion Hills, Black River 
Bridge, the assault and sieges of Vicksburg 
and Jackson. 

In August, it moved to New Orleans with 
the Thirteenth Corps. In October, it was en- 
gaged in the campaign up the Bayou Teche, 
and, returning to New Orleans iu November, it 
was ordered to Brownsville, Tex., but before 
lauding was ordered to Arkansas Pass. It 
disembarked on St. Joseph's aud Matagorda 
Islands to Saluria, participating iu the capture 
of Ft. Esperanza, and thence moved to Indian- 
ola and Port Lavaca. 

The First Brigade, while on the mainland of 
Texas, was commanded by Brig. Gen. Fitz 
Henry Warren. Januar} - 1, 1864, the regiment 



re-enlisted as veterans, and March 14 reached 
Bloomington, 111., and received veteran fur- 
lough. 

April 18, 1864. the regiment was re-organ- 
ized at Camp Butler, 111., and proceeded to 
New Orleans via Alton and St. Louis, arriving 
the 29th aud camping at Carrollton. 

May 17, it was ordered to Brashear City, 
La. Soon after its arrival, the regiment was 
scattered along the line of the road as guard, 
as follows : Companies F, C and K at Bayou 
Boeuf ; Company 1 at Bayou L'Ours ; Com- 
panies A and D at Tigerville ; Company G at 
Chacahula ; Company E at Terre Bonne ; Com- 
pany B at Bayou La Fourche and Bayou des 
Allemands ; Company H at Boutte ; regi- 
mental headquarters, Terre Bonne. The dis- 
trict was called the " District of La Fourche," 
commanded by Brig. Gen. Robert A. Cameron. 
headquarters at Thibodeaux. 

September 17, 1864, the non-veterans of the 
regiment were started home, via New York 
City, in charge of rebel prisoners, and were 
mustered out at Camp Butler about October 
11, 1S64. 

March 2, 1865, it was ordered to join the 
Sixteenth Army Corps. Near Boutte Station 
the train was thrown from the track, and nine 
men killed and seventy wounded. On the 
18th, the regiment embarked on Lake Pon- 
chartrain for Mobile expedition. Company K 
remaining behind to guard transportation, 
joined the regiment April 11, at Blakely. 

It next moved via Fort Gaines and Navy 
Cove, landed on Fish River, Ala., aud marched 
with Gen. Canity's army up the east side of 
Mobile Bay. The regiment was in the First 
Brigade, Col. W. L. McMillian, Ninety-fifth 
Ohio ; First Division, Brig. Gen. J. MeArthur ; 
Sixteenth Army Corps, Maj. Gen. A. J. Smith. 

March 27, it arrived in front of Spanish 
Fort, the main defense of Mobile, and, until its 
capture, April 18, was actively engaged. Loss, 
1 killed, 2 died of wounds, aud 9 wounded. 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



97 



After the surrender of Mobile, it marched, 
April 13, 1865, with the Sixteenth Arm}* 
Corps, for Montgomery, Ala., where it arrived 
on the 25th, and encamped on the Alabama 
River. Here it received the news of Lee and 
Johnston's surrender, after which its operations 
were not of a hostile character. 

May 10, marched to Selma, and May 17 by 
rail to Meriden, Miss. In the latter part of 
July, the regiment was filled above the maxi- 
mum by men transferred from the Seven ty- 
second, One Hundred and Seventeenth, One 
Hundred and Twenty-second and One Hundred 
and Twent3'-fourth Illinois, when it moved to 
Vicksburg August 4, 1865, and remained at 
that place until mustered out of service No- 
vember 24, 1865, and ordered to Camp Butler, 
111., for final payment and discharge. It had 
forty-seven men from Du Page County. 

COMPANY B. 

Morgan, Moses J., Naperville, Captain; date of rank 

September 18, 1861. 
Durant, Edward T., Lisle, First Lieutenant; date of 

promotion from Second Lieutenant March 20. 

1864. 
Morgan. Sid. O., Naperville, Sergeant; re-enlisted 

as veteran. 
Lyon, Forester S.. Downer's Grove. Sergeant; re- 
enlisted as veteran. 
Barr, James M., Lisle, Corporal; discharged March 

23, 1863, for disability. 
Cotter, Charles M., Lisle, Corporal ; discharged 

March 23, 1863, for disability. 
Green, Frank D., Lisle, Corporal; died at Ironton, 

Mo., February 15, 1862. 
Wakeman, Bradford J., Cottage Hill, Musician; 

promoted to Fife Major. 

PRIVATES. 

Allison, Andrew, Cass; died at Helena October 5. 

1862. 
Andrews, Charles, Downer's Grove; mustered out 

October 11, 1864 
Andrews, Giles, York, mustered out October 11, 

1864. 
Austin, Charles G., Jr., Downer's Grove; re-enlisted 

as veteran. 
Ballou, Morgan, Lisle, mustered out OctQber 11, 

1864, as Corporal. 



Block, Ferdinand, Lisle; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Blodgett, Scott, Cass; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Clark, Luther J., Bloomingdale; re-enlisted as vet- 
eran. 

Chatfield, Alonzo B., Lisle; discharged for wounds. 

Chatfield. George W., Lisle. 

Cry, Samuel, Naperville; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Clifford, Edward. Cass; mustered out October 11, 
1871. 

Day, Brice, Cass, died at Mound City September 
15, 1862. 

Durant, William E., Lisle; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Fetterman. Cyrus, Cass; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Fischer, Frederick J., Addison; mustered out Octo- 
ber 11, 1864, as Corporal. 

Grothman, Frederick, Addison; discharged October 
4, 1864, term expired. 

Heartt, George, Cass; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Harberger, Jacob, Addison ; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Holchany, Frederick, Addison ; re-enlisted as vet- 
eran. 

Hummer, Jacob, Naperville; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Kosbner, Charles, Naperville; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Morgan, Henry G., Naperville; discharged Febru- 
ary 11, 1862, for disability. 

Marvin, Hector A., Lisle; died at Ironton, Mo., 
November 19, 1861. 

Rodgers. Lucius B., Milton; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Ridge, Royer, Naperville; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Smart. Wesley, Downer's Grove: mustered out Oc- 
tober 11, 1864. 

Schmidt, Edward, Addison. 

Schwartz, Louis, Addison; died at Ironton, Mo., Oc- 
tober 14, 1861. 

Shimmer, J. C, Addison; mustered out October 11, 
1864. 

Turtlott, James M., Cass; mustered out October 11, 
1864. 

Utting, William, Addison; died at St. Louis October 
20, 1861. 

Wheatley, William, Lisle: mustered out October 11, 
1864. 

RECRUITS. 

Grannke, Charles, Addison, enlisted December 2, 
1861; died at Virginia Station, Mo., March 2, 
1862. 

Grothman, Frederick, York, e nlisted October 4, 
1864. 

Hatch, Edward P., Lisle, enlisted September 20, 
1864; discharged July 20, 1865, as Sergeant for 
promotion in U. S. Colored Infantry. 

Renken, Henry, Addison; transferred to gunboat 
service February 7, 1862. 



98 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



COMPANY P. 

Lapin, Charles, Warrenville. 

COMPANY H. 

Nelson, Henry, Naperville, enlisted March 20; 
mustered in April 17, 1864. 

Those who were mustered in October 4, 1864, were 
such as did not re-enlist after their terms had ex- 
pired. 

THIRTY-SIXTH REGIMENT. 

The Thirty-sixtb Regiment of Illinois In- 
fantry was organized at Aurora, 111., in Sep- 
tember, 1861, and mustered into service the 23d 
of the same month. It was sent to St. Louis, 
where it received its arms, from whence it was 
sent to Rolla, where it remained till January 
14, 1862. More active service now began, and 
it was engaged in battle at Bentonville and Pea 
Ridge, subsequent to which it was assigned to 
Gen. Pope's command. It was next engaged in 
the battle of Perry ville, where it lost seventy- 
five killed and wounded. But its terrible con- 
flict was at Stone River, where, after six days' 
fighting, it came out with only 200 men. It 
was subsequently engaged in other battles near 
Chattanooga, in all of which its courage was not 
found wanting. It was mustered out at New 
Orleans, October 8, 1865, and arrived at Camp 
Butler the 17th for discharge. It had forty- 
seven men from Du Page County. 

COMPANY A. 

Taylor, John B. F., Wheaton, enlisted August 8, 
and mustered in September 23, 1861 ; discharged 
September 22, 1864. 

COMPANY C 

Rothemel, Benhard, YoTk, enlisted and mustered 
in October 14, 1864; transferred from Seventy- 
fourth Regiment. 

COMPANY K. 

Captain — Adams, John Q., Wayne, date of rank 
August 20, and mustered in September 23, 1861 ; re- 
signed September 7, 1862. 

First Lieutenants — Elliot, John F., Wayne, date 
of rank September 7, 1862, mustered in March 12, 
1863, promoted from Sergeant, discharged May 30, 
1864 ; Pratt, Emery W., Wayne, date of rank April 
11, 1885, mustered in July 8, 1865. 



Second Lieutenants — Hammond, Mathew J., 
Wayne, date of rank February 15, 1862, resigned 
September 7, 1862 ; Hazelhurst, Charles, Wayne, 
date of rank September 7, 1862. mustered in Novem- 
ber 17, 1862, resigned July 7, 1865. 

Sergeants — Smith, Romain A., Wayne, enlisted 
August 12, 1861, re-enlisted as veteran ; Adams, El- 
dridge, Wayne, enlisted August 12, 1861, died of 
wounds January 18, 1863 ; Dickenson, David H., 
Wayne, enlisted August 12, 1861, as Corporal, pro- 
moted to Second Lieutenant U. S. Colored Infantry. 

Corporals— Folson, Theodore A., Wayne, enlisted 
August 12, 1861. 
Ketchum, Abrarn J., Wayne, enlisted August 12; 

1861, transferred to Company K. 

Starr, Robert H, Wayne, enlisted August 12, 1861; 
re-enlisted as veteran. 

Albro. Eugene P., Wayne, Corporal, enlisted Au- 
gust 12, 1861. 

Adams, Aseph J., Wayne; killed in battle at Stone 
River. 

Ilemmiugway, George W., Wayne, musician, en- 
listed August 12, 1861; discharged for disability. 

Hazelhurst, James, Musician, Wayne, enlisted Au- 
gust 12, 1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

PRIVATES. 

Allen, Henry C, Wayne, enlisted August 12, 1861. 
promoted to Corporal; discharged, February 25, 

1862, for wounds. 

Adams, William. Wayne, enlisted August 12, 1861; 
missing at Chickamauga September 20, 1863. 

Blank, Harrison W., Wayne, enlisted September 20, 
1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Clark, John P., Wayne, enlisted August 12, 1861; 
died at Rolla December 14, 1861. 

Delany, James, Wayne, enlisted August 12, 1861; 
discharged September 22, 1864. 

Gordon, John M., Wayne, enlisted August 12, 1861; 
re-enlisted as veteran. 

Grundy, Samuel, Wayne, enlisted August 12, 1861; 
killed at Chickamauga. 

Gates, George W., Wayne, enlisted Angust 19, 1861, 
killed at Dallas, Ga., May 26. 1864. 

La Rue, Harrison M., Du Page County, enlisted Sep- 
tember 24, 1861, transferred to Fifteenth Cavalry. 

Hillard, Michael, Wayne, enlisted August 12, 1861, 
died at Lebanon, Mo., Feb. 12, 1862. 

Hazelhurst, Frederick, Wayne, enlisted August 12, 
1861, mustered out, September 8, 1864, as Cor- 
poral. 

Hammond, Daniel, Wayne, enlisted August 12, 1861, 
re-enlisted as veteran. 







^Wfe^/^6^^^^9 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



101 



Judd, Francis, Wayne, enlisted August 12, 1861, re- 
enlisted as veteran. 
Matteson, Thomas P., Wayne, enlisted August 20, 

1861, promoted to Principal Musician. 
Minkler, John C, Wayne, enlisted August 24, 1861, 

re-enlisted as veteran. 
Monroe, George, Wayne; enlisted August 20, 1861. 

killed in battle at Stone River. 
Monroe, Edward E., Wayne, enlisted August 20, 

1861. 
Piatt, Emery W., Wayne, enlisted August 12, 1861, 

re-enlisted as veteran. 
Paul, John, Wayne, enlisted August 20, 1861, re-en- 
listed as veteran. 
Peterson, John, Wayne, enlisted August 21, 1861; 

transferred to V. R. C. April 17. 1864. 
Skinner, Harrison, Wayne, enlisted August 12, 

1861; killed at Perrsville, Ky., October 8, 1862. 
Simmons, Benjamin W., enlisted August 12, 1861. 

Scales, George M., Wayne, enlisted August 12, 

1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 
Samson, Francis, Wayne, enlisted August 12, 1861; 

died of wounds received at Cassville, Mo., April 

16, 1862. 
Sanders, Harlan, Wayne, enlisted August 12, 1861; 

discharged April 19, 1863, for wounds. 
Tukesbury, Francis, Wayne, enlisted August 12, 

1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 
Tucker, Charles A., Wayne, enlisted August 12, 

1861, re-enlisted as veteran. 
Wood, Orrin, Wayne, enlisted August 12, 1861, died 

January 19, 1863, of wounds. 
Wagoner, Sidney O., Wayne, enlisted August 12, 

1861, discharged March 16, 1864, for wounds. 
Unassigned Recruits — Bissell, Charles, York, en- 
listed and mustered in October 14, 1864. 

THIRTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT. 

The Thirty-seventh Regiment of Illinois In- 
fantry was organized at Chicago in September 
1861, and mustered out at Houston, Tex., May 
15, 1866. It had four men from Da Page 
County. 

Clark, Elijah A., Wheaton, First Assistant Surgeon, 
promoted by the President to Surgeon of Eighth 
Missouri Cavalry. 
Blodgett, Edward A., Downer's Grove, Quartermas- 
ter's Sergeant. 

COMPANY C. 

Newton, Isaac, Wheaton, enlisted September 1, 
1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 



COMPANY G. 

Topel, Dedrick, Downer's Grove, enlisted August 
15; re-enlisted as veteran. 

THIRTY-NINTH REGIMENT. 

The Thirty-ninth Regiment of Illinois In- 
fantry began recruiting immediately after the 
firing on Fort Sumter, but was not ready to 
take the field at the first call for six regiments 
from Illinois. It was mustered into service 
August, 1861, at Chicago, and mustered out 
at Norfolk, Va., December 5, 1865. It had 
two soldiers from Du Page County. 

COMPANY G. 

Cook, Ezra A., Wheaton, enlisted September 2, 
1861, discharged in 1864 for disability; Decker, 
Lewis, Wheaton, enlisted August 9, 1861, discharged 
the 30th for disability. 

FORTY-SECOND REGIMENT. 

The Forty-second Regiment of Illinois Iu- 
fanty was organized at Chicago July 22, 1861 
It bore the brunt of the war, being in the 
principal battles in which the Army of the 
Cumberland was engaged. It was mustered 
out at Indianola, Tex., December 16, 1865, and 
reached Camp Butler January 3,1866. It had 
seven men from Du Page County. 

COMPANY B. 

O'Brien, Edward, Du Page County, enlisted and 
mustered in September 3, 1860, at Chicago, re-enlist- 
ed as veteran from Du Page County January 1, 
1864, transferred to V. R. C. March 13, 1865. 

COMPANY H. 

Bents, Benjamin, Naperville, enlisted and mus- 
tered in September 3, 1861, re-enlisted as veteran; 
Butts, Benjamin F., Naperville, enlisted February 
16, 1861, re-enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864, 
mustered out December 16, 1865, as Sergeant; Gillis, 
Thomas, Naperville, enlisted anil mustered in Aug- 
ust 3, 1861, killed at Farmington, Miss., May 9, 
1862; Itzenhauzer, John, Naperville, enlisted and 
mustered in September 10, 1861, died of wounds 
January 8, 1862; Shimp, William, Naperville, en- 
listed and mustered in September 10, 1861, promoted 
to Sergeant, discharged on account of wounds Sep- 



102 



HISTOEY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



tember 16, 1864; Wilcox, Elisha, Naperville, enlist- 
ed and mustered in August 18, 1861, re-enlisted as 
veteran. 

FORTY-FOURTH REGIMENT. 

The Forty-fourth Regiment of Illinois In- 
fantry was organized in August, 1861, at Camp 
Ellsworth, in Chicago, and mustered out Sep- 
tember 25, 1865, at Port Lavaca, Tex. Ar- 
rived at Springfield October 15, 1865, where it 
was discharged. In had one soldier from Du 
Page County. 

COMPANY E. 

Goldhammer, Henry, York, enlisted August 1, 
mustered in September 13, 1861, transferred to 
Company K. 

FIFTY-FIRST REGIMENT. 

The Fifty-first Regiment was organized at 
Camp Douglas December 24, 1861. April 2, 
1862, it moved against Island No. 10. It suf- 
fered severely at the battle of Chickamauga, 
being in the thickest of the fight. On Febru- 
ary 10, 1864, the whole regiment mustered as 
veterans. During the Atlanta campaign, it 
lost 3 officers killed, 4 wounded, and 105 men 
killed and wounded. It was mustered out of 
service at Camp Irwin, Tex., September 25, 
1865, and arrived at Camp Butler October 15. 
It had eighteen men from Du Page County, as 
follows : 

COMPANY B. 

Bates, Ansel, Cottage Hill, enlisted October 19, 
1861, mustered in January 23, 1862, promoted Ser- 
geant and Second Lieutenant; Bleasch, Gustave, 
Cottage Hill, enlisted October 19, 1861, mustered in 
January 23, 1862; Burman, Lewis, Addison, enlisted 
December 5, 1861; Foley, John, Cottage Hill, en- 
listed November 26, mustered in December 24, 1861, 
died at Chattanooga- June 1, 1864; Hahn, Henry, 
Brush Hill, enlisted December 3, 1861; Hoffman, 
Paul, Cottage Hill, enlisted December 5, 1861; 
Johnson, Christian, Cottage Hill, enlisted Decem- 
ber 7, mustered in the 24th, 1861; Kehler, Phillip, 
Cottage Hill, enlisted December 7, mustered in the 
24th, 1861, died at Paducah June 1, 1862; Keiler, 
Stephen, Cottage Hill, enlisted December 13, mus- 
tered in the 24th, 1861, discharged October 2, 1862; 
Kernan, Mark T., York, enlisted November 26, 



1861; Lapp, Henry, Cottage Hill, enlisted December 
24, 1861, mustered in January 23, 1862, accidentally 
killed March 16, 1862; Lauerman, John, Cottage 
Hill, enlisted December 20, 1861, mustered in Janu- 
ary 23, 1862; Snow, Edgar J., Cottage Hill, enlisted 
October 23, mustered in December 24, 1861; Welsh. 
William, Cottage Hill, enlisted November 30, mus- 
tered in December 24, 1861; Werden, Frederic, 
Brush Hill, enlisted December 2, mustered in the 
24th, 1861. 

COMPANY E. 

Hull, Edward E., Naperville, enlisted December' 
24, 1863; killed at Kenesaw Mountain June 15, 1864. 

COMPANY I. 

Miller, George W., Cass, enlisted February 25, 
mustered in March 10, 1865 ; Prickett, William W., 
Cass, enlisted February 25, mustered in March 10, 
1865 

FIFTY-SECOND REGIMENT. 

The Fifty-second Regiment was organized at 
Geneva, 111. Its first active service was at Fort 
Donelson, where it arrived in time to take 
charge of the rebel prisoners taken there and 
deliver them at Springfield and Chicago. It was 
then ordered to join the Array of the Tennes- 
see, and was engaged in the battle of Shiloh, 
where it lost in killed, wounded and missing 
over one-third of its number. It was subse- 
quently in the battles of Iuka, Corinth, Snake 
Creek Gap, Resaca, Lay's Ferry, Rome Cross 
Roads, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain, Nickojack 
Creek, Decatur and Altoona, after which it 
was with Gen. Sherman on his march to the 
sea, and went from there to Richmond. Was 
next in the grand review at Washington, from 
whence it was ordered to Louisville, where it 
was mustered out only 517 strong out of the 
original 940 men in its ranks, to whom 400 had 
been added as recruits, 823 men having been 
killed or disabled in the battles and hardships 
which this regiment had passed through. It 
had twenty-four men from Du Page County, 
as follows : 

COMPANY A. 

Burnham, Edward, Du Page County, enlisted Oc- 
tober 12, mustered in the 25th, 1861 ; Giles, Jerry W., 
Naperville, enlisted September 16, mustered in Oc- 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



103 



tober 25, 1861; Graves, James D., Naperville, en 
listed October 25, 1861. 

COMPANY C. 

Parks, Isaac, Naperville,~enlisted September 15, 
mustered in November 19, 1S61. 

COMPANY D. 

Brown, Gilbert N., Winfield, enlisted September 
10, mustered in November 19. 1861, re-enlisted as 
veteran, promoted to Sergeant; Hammond, James 
W., Winfield, enlisted January 20, mustered in 
February 27, 1864; Hammond, William H., Winfield, 
enlisted and mustered ia at the same time ; 
Reckenback, Christian, Winfield, enlisted Sep- 
tember 10, mustered in November 19, 1861 ; 
Stanfer, Lewis, Winfield, enlisted and mustered in 
at the same time, re-enlisted as veteran; Swenson, 
John, Warrenville, enlisted and mustered in at the 
same time, re-enlisted as veteran; Vanderogen, 
John, Naperville, enlisted January 19, mustered in 
February 27, 1864, died near Marietta, Ga., July 
23, 1864. 

Recruit — La Plant, Medar, Naperville, January, 
13, 1864. 

COMPANY I. 

Farnham, Thomas E., Warrenville, enlisted Sep- 
tember 11, and mustered in October 25, 1861. 

COMPANY K. 

Cleveland, Sylvester, Naperville, enlisted January 
9, 1864; Currier, William R,, Turner Junction, en- 
listed September 6, mustered in October 25, 1861. 

Unassigned Recruit — Ford, John, Naperville, 
mustered in February 27, 1864. 

The following were musicians who enlisted 
October 25, 1861, all from Naperville : 

Glines, A. B., Heitzler, John, Mathias, Gregory, 
Sayler, Alexander H., Sayler, Morgan F., Sayler, 
Thomas W., Swartz, Joseph, Vallette, James M. 



FIFTT-THIRD REGIMENT. 

The Fifty-third Regiment of Illinois Infantry 
was organized at Ottawa, 111., in the winter of 
1861-62. and moved to Camp Douglas Febru- 
ary 27. It was mustered out at Louisville, 
Ky., July 22, 1865, and arrived at Chicago the 
28th. It had one man from Du Page County 
in its ranks. 



COMPANY K. 

Kingston, George, Downer's Grove, enlisted as 
recruit October 19, 1864. 

FIFTY-FOURTH REGIMENT. 

The Fifty-fourth Regiment was organized at 
Camp Dubois, Aurora, 111., in November, 1861, 
as a part of a Kentucky brigade. It was mus- 
tered into service February 18, 1862. This 
regiment was actively engaged raiding against 
and skirmishing with the enemy much of 
the time during the war, and in consequence 
many of them were taken prisoners, but were 
exchanged December 5, 1864. 

It was mustered out at Little Rock October 
15, 1865, and was discharged at Camp Rutler 
the 26th. It had thirteen men from Du Page 
County. 

COMPANY B. 

Miller, Alexander, Milton, enlisted November 21, 
and mustered in February 16. 1861; re-enlisted as 
veteran. 

COMPANY D. 

Cox, William, Downer's Grove, enlisted as re- 
cruit March 31, 1865, died at Fort Smith, Ark., 
September 12, 1865; Cox, Wesley H., Downer's 
Grove, enlisted as recruit March 6, 1862, died at 
Memphis October 1, 1863; Hardsoc, Elzy, Downer's 
Grove, enlisted as recruit March 1, 1865, mustered 
out October 15, 1865. 

COMPANY G. 

Busick, James A., Milton, enlisted December 2, 
1861, mustered in February 18, 1862, re-enlisted as 
veteran; Sutherland, Amaziah, Milton, enlisted De- 
cember 2, 1861, re-enlisted as veteran; Stevens, 
John W., Milton, enlisted December 2, 1861, re-en- 
listed as veteran. 

COMPANY I. 

Farroll, Ezra R., York, enlisted and mustered in 
as recruit March 7, 1865, mustered out October 15, 
1865; Riscoe, John, York, enlisted and mustered in 
March 7, 1865, mustered out October 15, 1865. 

C.OMPANY K. 

Campbell, James H., Milton, enlisted as Wagoner 
December 10, 1861, mustered in February 10, 1862; 
Boyd, Ithamer, Milton, enlisted December 10, 1861, 
mustered in February 16, 1862; re-enlisted as vet- 
eran. 



104 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



UNASSIGNED RECRUITS. 

Baker, Henry J.. York, enlisted and mustered in 
March 8, 1865; Plumby, Andrew J., Milton, enlisted 
and mustered in Marcli 30, 1864, transferred to V. 
It. C. September 22, 1864. 

FIFTY-FIFTH REGIMENT. 

The Fifty-fifth Regiment of Illinois with the 
Fifty-fourth Ohio Infantry, distinguished them- 
selves by their obstinate valor at the battle of 
Shiloh, where they held the extreme left of the 
Union army against a greatly superior force of 
the enemy till the main body had retired. 
Their loss in this engagement was ten officers 
and 102 killed or mortally wounded. The 
regiment was organized at Camp Douglas, and 
mustered into service October 31, 1861, and 
and mustered out at Little Rock, Ark., August 
14, 1865. It arrived at Chicago August 22, 
where it was discharged. It had in its ranks 
thirty-five men from Du Page County : 

company c. 

Sanders, Calvin A., Naperville, enlisted Septem- 
ber 26, 1861, discharged January 5, 1863, for dis- 
ability; Summers, Thomas, Du Page County, en- 
listed September 30, 1861, died at Memphis Septem- 
ber 22, 1862; Schultz, Theodore, Du Page County, 
enlisted August 27, 1861, re-enlisted as veteran. 

COMPANY E. 

First Lieutenant. — Dixon, William H, Downer's 
Grove, resigned March 13, 1862. 

Privates. — Arnot, Hugo, Naperville, enlisted Sep- 
tember 3, 1861, promoted to Corporal; Bautling- 
hause, Amos, Naperville, enlisted September 6, 
1851; Benie, Henry, Naperville, enlisted September 
25, 1861, re-enlisted as veteran ; Baiger, Dedric, 
Naperville, enlisted September 26, 1861, re-en- 
listed as veteran; Dixon, Robert, Du Page County, 
enlisted February 18, mustered in the 27, 1861, 
promoted to Captain from First Sergeant, re-en- 
listed as veteran ; Downing, William, Blooming- 
dale, enlisted March 1, mustered in April 12, 1861; 
Garbs, Richard, Naperville, enlisted September 16, 
died at St. Louis of wounds October 31, 1864; Garst, 
Christian, Naperville, enlisted September 6, 1861, 
re-enlisted as veteran ; Gleasner, Andrew, Naper- 
ville, enlisted September 9, 1861, re-enlisted as vet- 
eran ; Gushard, Emanuel, Naperville, enlisted No- 



vember 1, 1861, taken prisoner November 3, 1863; 
Gushard, Isaac, Naperville, enlisted September26,re- 
enlisted as veteran ; Kailer, Frederick, Naperville, en- 
listed September 3, 1861, re-enlisted as veteran; Rei- 
ser, Henry, Naperville, enlisted September 3, 1861, 
re-enlisted as veteran; Kennedy, James, Naperville, 
enlisted September 8, 1861; Kellogg, Samuel C, Na- 
perville, died at Vicksburg July 18, 1863; Leibern- 
guth. Christian, Naperville, enlisted September 6, 
re-enlisted as veteran; Leibernguth, Christian, Cass, 
enlisted January 24, mustered in February 16, 1864, 
promoted fo Sergeant; Misner, Andrew, Naperville, 
enlisted September 19, 1861, re-enlisted as veteran; 
Porter, William, Naperville, promoted to Captain 
April 1, 1863, killed in battle June 27, 1864; Papp, 
Martin, Naperville, enlisted September 20, 1861, dis- 
charged September 26, 1863, for wounds; Porter, 
Martin R., Du Page County, enlisted September 3, 
1861, discharged for disability June 28, 1863; Rey- 
nolds, Henry, Naperville, enlisted September 6. 
1861; Reinoehl, Henry, Naperville, re-enlisted as 
veteran January 23, 1864; Reinoehl, Joseph, Naper- 
ville, enlisted November 18, 1861; Shaning, Dede- 
rick, York, re-enlisted as veteran January 23, 1864, 
killed at Kenesaw Mountain June 27, 1864; Shan 
ing, Richard, Naperville, enlisted September 5, 
1861, re-enlisted as veteran; Stretcher, David, Na- 
perville, enlisted September 5, 1861, re-enlisted as 
veteran; Teisel, Henry, Naperville, enlisted Septem- 
ber 6, 1861; Trinke, Harman, Naperville, enlisted 
October 16, 1861, died at Napoleon, Ark., January 
17, 1863; Warden, Moses, Du Page County, enlisted 
September 3, 1861, re-enlisted as veteran; Warden, 
John, Du Page County, enlisted September 7, 1861, 
re-enlisted as veteran. 

FIFTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT. 

The Fifty-eighth Regiment of Illinois Infan- 
try was organized with nine companies at Camp 
Douglas, and mustered into service December 
24 and 25, 1861, the remaining tenth company 
being mustered in February 7, 1862. It par- 
ticipated in the capture of Fort Donelson, and 
was in many sanguinary battles during the 
war. It was mustered out at Montgomery, 
Ala., April 1, 1866. Twelve Du Page County 
men were in its ranks, as follows : 

company c. 
Atwater, Benjamin F., York, enlisted December 
12, mustered in the 25th, 1861, discharged June 17, 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



105 



for disability: Eldridge, George W., York, enlisted 
January 12, 1862, discharged for disability. 

COMPANY D. 

Mehan, John, Naperville, enlisted December 3, 
1861, mustered in the 20th, 1861, re-enlisted as vet- 
eran; Stuber, Daniel, Addison, enlisted November 
9, mustered in December 31, 1861, killed at Shiloh, 
April 6, 1862. 

COMPANY F. 

Hoehn, George, Corporal, Brush Hill, enlisted 
and mustered in December 31, 1861, re-enlisted as 
veteran; Ugoveck, Albert, Cottage Hill, Corporal, 
enlisted November 12, mustered in December 31, 
1861; Shultz, John, Brush Hill, enlisted October 30, 
mustered in December 31, 1861. 

COMPANY o. 
Battles, Caleb, Winfleld, enlisted and mustered in 
December 31, 1861, transferred to Company I, March 
2, 1862. 

COMPANY H. 

Scoville, George R., Wheaton, enlisted October 8, 
1861, discharged for disability; Scoville, Goodwin 
D., Wheaton, enlisted October 8, re-enlisted as vet- 
eran. 

COMPANY I. 

Dooner, Jeremiah, Turner Junction, enlisted De- 
cember 9, mustered in the 24th, 1861, died of wounds 
received at Shiloh. 

SIXTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT. 

The Sixty-seventh Regiment of Illinois In- 
fantry was organized at Camp Douglas June 
13, 1862, for three months' service, where it re- 
mained during its term. It had in its ranks 
three men from Du Page County. 

COMPANY B. 

Farnagham, Melvin, Warrenville, enlisted June 
4 and mustered in the 13th, 1862. 

COMPANY D. 

Blanchard, AVilliam F., Wheaton, enlisted June 
2, and mustered in the 13th, 1862; Ward, Isaac S., 
Wheaton, enlisted and mustered in at the same time. 

SIXTY-NINTH REGIMENT. 

The Sixty-ninth Regiment Illinois Infantry 
was organized at Camp Douglas, and mustered 
into service as a three months' regiment June 



14, 1862. It had five Du Page County men in 
its ranks. 

COMPANY B. 

Benedict, Thomas, Wayne, Donovan, Henry, 
Turner Junction; Griffith, William, Turner Junction; 
Ketchum, Charles F, Turner Junction; Stephens, 
AlonzoS., Winfleld; all mustered out at the expira- 
tion of their term. 

SEVENTY-SECOND REGIMENT. 

The Seventy-second Regiment of Illinois In- 
fantry was organized by the Board of Trade, 
Chicago, July 23, 1862. It took part in the 
campaign on the Big Black, siege of Vicksburg, 
battle of Nashville, Fort Pillow, Fort Pember- 
toii and rnairy other lesser battles. It was mus- 
tered out of service at Jackson, Miss., August 
13, 1865. It had fifteen men from Du Page 
County in its ranks. 

COMPANY A. 

Black, Henry, York, enlisted and mustered in 
October 8, 1864, transferred to Twenty-third Veteran 
Reserve Corps, April 24, 1865; Schurzman, Charles, 
Addison, enlisted and mustered in October 8, 1864, 
died of wounds at Greenville, Ala., April 16, 1865. 

COMPANY C. 

Gleasou, Henry J., Milton, enlisted and mustered 
in August 21, 1862, promoted to Captain September 
8, 1864; Gleason, Bishop J., Milton, enlisted Janu- 
ary 4, and mustered in the 31st, 1864, transferred to 
Thirty-third Regiment. 

COMPANY D. 

Graves, Julius, Lisle, enlisted July 28, mustered in 
August 21, 1861. 

COMPANY E. 

Wells, Abraham, Downer's Grove, enlisted Au- 
gust 8, mustered in the 21st, 1862; Wells, Lucian, 
Cass, enlisted and mustered in at the same time; 
Winterton, William, Downer's Grove, enlisted and 
mustered in at the same time. 

COMPANY O. 

Stinson, Thomas, Naperville, enlisted August 12, 
and mustered in the 21st. 1862, died May 28, 1862, of 
wounds. 

COMPANY K. 

Heinricks, Peter, York; Heinrick, Christopher, 
Yoik, enlisted and mustered in October 8, 1864- 



106 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Newhouse, Peter, Addison, enlisted and mustered in 
at the same date; Ross, Charles, York, enlisted and 
mustered in August 23, '1864; Shattman, Ernst, Ad- 
dison, enlisted and mustered in October 8, 1864; 
Williams, William M., York, enlisted and mustered 
in October 14, 1864. 

EIGHTY-SECOND REGIMENT. 

The Eighty-second Regiment of Illinois In- 
fantry, called the Second Hecker Regiment, 
mostly made up of Germans and Scandinavians, 
was mustered into service at Camp Butler, 
August 26, 1862. This regiment always 
honored the German name for toughness and 
endurance. It was mustered out at Chicago, 
June 17, 1865, at which time it had only 310 
men left. One man represented Du Page 
County in it. 

COMPANY K. 

Bumgartner, Andreas, Winfield, enlisted July 5, 
mustered in September 26, discharged May 5, 1864, 
for disability. 

EIGHTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT. 

The Eighty-eighth Regiment of Illinois In- 
fantry, known as the Second Board of Trade 
Regiment, was mustered in at Chicago August 
27, 1862, and after participating in its share in 
the war was mustered out of service at Chica- 
go, June 14, 1865. Eight men from Du Page 
County were in its ranks. 

COMPANY B. 

Hamilton, Robert, Musician, died at Nashville, 
January 13, 1863; Jones, James H., mustered out 
June 9 as Corporal; Sutherland, James B., died at 
Nashville of wounds January 26, 1863 ; Thomas, 
Samuel S., transferred to Company E. 

All the above from Milton, and enlisted and 
mustered into service in August, 1862. 

company o. 

Hubbart, Nicholas, enlisted August 12, mustered 
in the 27th, 1862; Hester, Samuel L., enlisted August 
15, mustered in the 27th, 1862, mustered out as Cor- 
poral; Hester, Samuel, enlisted and mustered in at 
the same time; Kelly, Samuel, enlisted and mus- 
tered in at the same time. 

All the above from Milton. 



EIGHTY-NINTH REGIMENT. 

The Eighty-ninth Regiment of Illinois In- 
fantry was organized at Chicago under the 
united supervision of several railroad com- 
panies, whose parent offices were at the 
place. Hence it was called the Railroad Regi- 
ment. Its first company was mustered into 
the service August, 25, and its last the 27, 
1862. It belonged to the Army of the Cumber- 
laud, and Nashville was the last great battle in 
which it was engaged, at which place it was 
mustered out of service June 10, 1865. It had 
seven men from Du Page County in its ranks. 

company k. 
Watson, Emery B., Turner Junction, Corporal, 
enlisted August 5, mustered in the 25th, 1862, dis- 
charged September 25, 1864, for disability ; Fort- 
man, Louis, Milton, enlisted August 4, and mus- 
tered in the 25th, 1862, died at New Albany, Ind. , 
December 12, 1862 ; Leary, John, Turner Junction, 
enlisted August 11, and mustered in the 25th, 1862 ; 
Scott, Otis P., Turner Junction, enlisted August 7, 
and mustered in the 25th, 1862 ; Temple, George, 
Naperville, enlisted January 23, 1864 ; Washington, 
George, enlisted at the same time ; Wright, Wallace, 
Turner Junction, enlisted August 7, mustered in 
the 25th, 1862, killed at Chickamauga September 
19, 1863. 

NINETY- FIFTH REGIMENT. 

The Ninety-fifth Regiment of Illinois Infan- 
try was mustered into the service at Rockford, 
111., September 4, 1862. Its chief field of op- 
eration was around Vicksburg, New Orleans 
and Mobile. It was mustered out at Camp 
Butler, Springfield, August 16, 1865. It lost 
84 men in battle, and 276 of disease. Two 
men from Du Page County was in its ranks. 

company a. 
Pomery, Luther, Addison, enlisted October 17,1864, 
transferred to the Forty-seventh Illinois Infantry ; 
Smith, Thomas, Turner Junction, enlisted January, 
25, 1865. 

ONE HUNDREDTH REGIMENT. 

The One Hundredth Regiment of Illinois In- 
fantry was organized August 28, 1862, and 




$>0&r) $/* 



'4A<r 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



107 



known as the Will County Regiment. It had 
one man from Du Page County. 

COMPANY D. 

Saylor, Peter H., Naperville. enlisted August 1, 
mustered in the 30th. 

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH REGIMENT. 

The One Hundred and Fifth Regiment of 
Illinois Infantry deserves a more extended his- 
tory than any other to whose ranks Du Page 
County contributed her citizen soldiers, not be- 
cause these soldiers were better than others 
who had gone from this count}' into the war 
before or after them, but because there were 
more of them than had enlisted into any other 
single regiment from this county. 

The first call for volunteers had been made 
April 16, 1861, more than a j-ear previous to 
the initiatory steps taken to raise the One Hun- 
dred and Fifth Regiment. Du Page County 
had fully contributed her quota to fill the first 
demand made upon her public spirit. Her 
young men had gone forth, with man}' others 
from the eutire North, and the enemy had been 
met on many a field. Sometimes defeat and 
sometimes victory had followed, but as yet no 
substantial results had been reached as to how 
the conflict was to end. The rebels had lost 
none of their confidence ; on the contrary, their 
resolution and courage seemed to be gathering 
force. 

While this was true, it ma} 7 with equal 
truth be said the inflexible determination of the 
North to conquer them had become the trans- 
cendent sentiment of the pulpit, forum and 
the press, and had fired the ambition of almost 
every young heart to interpose the muscular 
frame that encased it between the sacred shrine 
of his country's freedom and the enemy who 
had attacked it. The pleasing illusions, first 
that the rebels would not fight, and next that 
they could be conquered in three months, had 
vanished — the first when they fired on Fort 
Sumter, and the second when they met they 



met the Union forces in the field as "Greek 
meets Greek." 

And, while we condemned them none the 
less, we have been taught to respect them more, 
at least for their fighting qualities. Such was 
the spirit of public sentiment when the One 
Hundred and Fifth Regiment was organized in 
the counties of De Kalb and Du Page — six 
from the former and four from the latter. It 
was in response to a call from President Lin- 
coln for 300,000 more men. 

The One Hundred and Fifth Regiment Illi- 
nois Infantry Volunteers was mustered into the 
service of the United States September 2, 1862, 
at Dixon, 111. 

On the 8th, moved to Camp Douglas ; on the 
30th left Camp Douglas for Louisville, Ky.; 
arriving on the 2d of October and reporting to 
Gen. Dumont, was attached to his division, 
Brig. Gen. W. T. Ward's Brigade ; on the 3d 
moved in the direction of Frankfort ; arrived 
on the 9th after a severe march ; were engaged 
in guard and picket duty, with occasional slight 
skirmishing with the enemy. While at Frank- 
fort, made a raid to Lawrenceburgand returned. 
On the 26th moved en route to Bowling Green, 
arriving on the 4th of November, and remain- 
ing one week. Was ordered to Scottville, No- 
vember 25 ; moved to Gallatin, Tenn., Decem- 
ber 11 ; moved to South Tunnel February 1, 
1863 ; returned to Gallatin, remaining until the 
1st day of June, 1863, when it moved to La- 
vergne ; from thence to Murfreesboro, Tenn.; 
returning to Lavergne the last of July, moved 
to Nashville August 19 ; was quartered in Fort 
Negley, doing guard duty in it and the city of 
Nashville ; exchanged the Austrian musket, 
with which the regiment had been armed, for 
the Springfield rifle musket. Meanwhile it was 
attached to the Eleventh Army Corps, Maj. 
Gen. O. O. Howard commanding. 

On the 24th of February. 1864, it took the 
line of march in the diriction of Chattanooga, 
Tenn. On the — th day of March it arrived 



108 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



at Wauhatchie, at which place it remained 
until the 2d da3' of May, being brigaded with 
the One Hundred and Second and One Hun- 
dred and Twenty-ninth Illinois, Seventieth Indi- 
ana and the Seventy-ninth Ohio, with which it 
remained during the war. In the meantime, 
the Eleventh and Twelfth Army Corps were 
consolidated under the name of the Twentieth 
Army Corps, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker com- 
manding. May 2, moved to Gordon's Mills ; 
May 6, marched to Leet's Farm ; thence to 
Taylor's Ridge on the 7th ; May 10, moved to 
Snake Creek Gap ; May 12, to Sugar Valley ; 
May 13, moved in the direction of Resaca, 
Ga., skirmishing that evening and the next 
day. The morning of the 15th, moved with 
the corps to the extreme left of the lines. Im- 
mediately upon its arrival, took part in a 
charge upon the enemy's works, which were 
carried, losing several men in the engagement 
On the 16th, pursued the retreating army 
arriving at Calhoun on the 17th. On the 18th, 
moved to near Cassville. On the 19th, the 
One Hundred and Fifth being in advance, 
skirmished with the rear guard of the enemy, 
driving them at every point. Remained near 
Kingston until the 23d, when ordered forward, 
crossing the Etoway River; 24th, moved to 
Burnt Hickory. On the 25th, continuing its 
march to Dallas, Ga., encountering the enemy, 
having a brisk engagement until dark — the 
casualties numbering 15, including two com- 
missioned officers. 

From this time until the 1st of June, the 
regiment was engaged in advancing the line, 
building and strengthening the works and 
skirmishing, losing 16 men. 

On the 1st of June, moved to the extreme 
left with the Twentieth Corps. On the 2d, the 
One Hundred and Fifth was ordered out as 
flankers, in which position it lost a most excel- 
lent officer, Surgeon Horace S. Potter, being 
killed by a shell. On the 3d, moved around 
and beyond the enemy's right, encamping near 



Ackworth, Ga. Here it remained until the 6th, 
when it moved forward and took position at 
Golgotha Church, in line of battle, throwing 
up intrenchments and remaining until the 15th, 
when it again moved forward, encountering 
the enemy behind the breastworks. A stead} 7 
fire was kept up until dark. That night and 
the next day (the 16th) was occupied in 
strengthening the position by erecting breast- 
works, being exposed to the fire of the enemy. 
Lost 19 men during the two da3 - s. The night 
of the 16th, the enemy retreated. On the 
17th, 18th, 19th and 20th, followed the retreat- 
ing enemy, with slight skirmishing at inter- 
vals ; 21st, severe skirm'.3h fighting ; 22d, 
moved forward about a mile, in close proxim- 
ity to the enemy's works, exposed to their fire, 
losing 11 men. The enemy evacuated its posi- 
tion during the night of July 2. On the 3d, 
moved in the direction of Marietta, Ga. The 
brigade to which the One Hundred and Fifth 
was attached being the advance, skirmished 
with the enemy, losing 1 man killed and 2 
wounded, camping about four miles from Mari- 
etta, Ga., in plain view of a portion of the 
rebel army. On the evening of the 4th, con" 
tinued the march in the direction of the Chat- 
tahoochie River, camping within two miles of 
that stream, on the north side, the night of the 
6th. Remained there until the 17th, when it 
crossed the river and encamped until the after- 
noon of the 18th ; moved forward about five 
miles and rested until the morning of the 20th; 
crossed Peach Tree Creek and came upon the 
enemy. 

A line of battle was formed, a charge of the 
enemy was repulsed in the afternoon, and sev- 
eral prisoners captured, also the colors of the 
Twelfth Louisiana. The 21st was occupied in 
burying the dead of both sides, and collecting 
and turning over ordnance and other property. 
On the 22d, moved forward about three miles, 
when the enemy was again encountered, posted 
behind the defenses of Atlanta. Intrenchments 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



109 



were immediately thrown up. Remained in 
this position until the 26th, when relieved and 
placed on reserve ; 29th. moved six miles to 
the right of the line. Making the position 
secure by throwing up works, remained until 
the 2d day of August ; returned to the left and 
took position, which was fortified and strength- 
ened. Constant skirmishing and artillery firing 
was kept up until the night of the 25th of 
August, when ordered to fall back to the Chat- 
tahoochie. Here it remained until the 27th, 
when it took position on the north side of that 
stream, doing picket and guard duty. The 2d 
daj T of September the city of Atlanta surren- 
dered. The regiment remained in the vicinity of 
Atlanta until the 15th of November, when the 
"grand march to the sea "was begun. The 
One Hundred and Fifth, accompanying the ex- 
pedition, bore its full share of the trials and 
hardships incident thereto. 

Passing on the route Decatur, Lithonia, So- 
cial Circle, Rutledge and Madison, at which last- 
named place it arrived on the 19th of Novem- 
ber. From thence marched southward to the 
city of Milledgeville, the capital of Georgia, ar- 
riving on the 22d, and remaining until the 27th. 
Thence to the north of the Mississippi & 
Georgia Central Railroad. Passing through 
Sandersville, Davisboro and Louisville (the One 
Hundred and Fifth and part of the One Hun- 
dred and Second meeting a body of rebel cav- 
alry between the two last-mentioned places), 
reaching Milan on December 3. 

Continuing the march toward Savannah, pass- 
ing through Springfield on the 7th, having a 
slight skirmish with the guerrillas, arriving in 
the city ot Savannah on the 10th. The One 
Hundred and Fifth being the advance that day, 
had a brisk skirmish with the enemy's pickets, 
driving them within the defenses of that city. 
Participated in the siege of Savannah, which 
surrendered to a magnanimous foe, to use the 
words of the Savannah Republican. This was 
the crowning success of the campaign, and the 



troops were in ecstacies. They* mingled freely 
with the populace, bought hot cakes of the 
pretty, bright-eyed feminine rebels, who didn't 
look so very hostile to the boys as they ate from 
their pie-tins the delicious tid-bits prepared for 
them, " all for greenbacks," of course, and yet, 
greenbacks nevertheless, it was a pleasant 
change to eat food prepared by female hands. 
On the 31st of December, A. D. 1864, and Jan- 
uary 1, 1865, was occupied in crossing the Sav- 
annah River, losing one man by a musket shot 
from the enemy. Moved five miles, and en- 
camped until the 4th of January. Marched 
north to Hardee's farm, and again encamped 
remaining until the 17th, with slight skirmishes 
at intervals. Moved to Hardeeville. remaining 
there until the 29th, when it started on the 
campaign of the Carolinas. Moving northward, 
nothing of interest occurred until the 2d day of 
February, when the One Hundred and Fifth be- 
ing in the advance, encountered the enemy near 
Lawtonville, strongly posted behind their bar- 
ricades ; it immediately charged the enemy. 
driving them from their position through the 
town, losing eight men in the engagement. 

Continued the march on the 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th 
and 7th, when the One Hundred and Fifth had 
the advance. Had some slight skirmishes 
with Wade Hampton's cavalry ; 8th, 9th and 
10th. were engaged in tearing up railroad be- 
tween Graham Station and Williston ; from 
thence across the North and South Edisto 
Rivers, on the road to Columbia, arriving op- 
posite that city on the 1 6th, after a very disa- 
greeable march through swamps and marshes. 
Not being able to cross the Congaree at that 
point, moved up the river and crossed the 
Broad and Saluda Rivers, which unite and 
form the Congaree. Marching northward, ar- 
rived at Winnsboro on the 21st On the 22d, 
the regiment, again in the advance, had some 
skirmishing with Butler's rebel cavalr} - , and 
crossed the Wateree River ; reached Hanging 
Rock on the 27th ; rested one day ; 29th moved 



110 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



forward, arriving at Chesterfield March 3 ; at 
Cheraw March 6. Crossed Great Pedee and 
Lumber Rivers, and arrived at Fayetteville on 
the 11th. Resting three days, 15th moved in 
the direction of Raleigh, N. C, some ten miles, 
when it encountered the enemy, heavily in- 
trenched near Averysboro ; then, on the 16th, 
followed the battle of Averysboro, the enemy 
being driven from their position. The One 
One Hundred and Fifth lost six killed and six- 
teen wounded. 

On the 19th, 20th and 21st, took part in the 
engagement near Bentonville ; the enemy evac- 
uated that place on the night of the 21st. Ar- 
rived at Goldsboro on the night of the 24th. 
Thus ended the campaign of the Carolinas. 

Remained at Goldsboro until April 10, 1865. 
Continued the march toward Raleigh, arriving 
at Smithfield on the 11th, and at Raleigh on 
the 13th, encountering but little opposition 
from the enemy. Resting till the 25th, moved 
out some fourteen miles on the Holly Springs 
road, in the direction of Gen. Johnston's 
army. Encamped during the 26th and 27th. 
In the meantime, Gen. Johnston surrendered. 

On the 2Sth, returned to Raleigh, and imme- 
diately began making preparations for the 
homeward march. On the 30th. left Raleigh 
en route to Washington City, by wa}' of Rich- 
mond, passing through the latter city on the 
11th of May : arrived in the vicinit}' of Alex- 
andria, Va., on the 19th ; took part in the 
grand review at Washington on the 24th, when 
the regiment received a compliment for their 
movements in the manual of arms and their 
military appearance. Remained iu the vicin- 
ity of Washington until the 7th of June, when 
the regiment was mustered out of the service 
and started by rail for Chicago, 111., where it 
arrived on the 10th. Remained at Camp Fry 
until the 17th, when paid off and disbauded. 



LIEUTENANT COLONEL. 



Vallette, Henry F., Naperville; date of rauk Sep- 
tember 2, 1862; resigned June 18, 1864. 



ADJUTANT. 

Phillips, William N., Wayne; date of rank Sep- 
tember 2, 1862; resigned December 2, 1862. 

SURGEONS. 

Potter, Horace S., Miltnn; date of rank Septem- 
ber 5, 1862; killed in battle June 2, 1864. 

Waterman, Alfred, Warrenville; date of rank June 
2, 1864; promoted from First Surgeon; mustered out 
June 7, 1865. 

FIRST ASSISTANT SURGEON. 

Beggs, George W., Naperville; date of rank June 
2, 1864; promoted from Second Surgeon; mustered 
out June 7, 1865. 

NON-COMMISSIONED STAFF. 

SERGEANT MAJORS. 

Vallette, Jonathan G., Milton; discharged Jul}' 6, 
1864, to accept commission in volunteer service. 

Whitlock, Ogden, Milton, mustered out June 7, 
1865. 

COMMISSART SERGEANT. 

Clinton, Beach. Winfield; promoted First Lieu- 
tenant and Quarter-master in United States Colored 
Troops. 

H08PITAL 8TEWABDS. 

Beggs, George W., Naperville; promoted Assistant 
Surgeon. 

PRINCIPAL MUPICIAN6. 

Fuller, Morell, Du Page County. 
Van Vetzger, Walter. 

COMPANY B. 

CAPTAINS. 

Rogers, Theodore S., Naperville, date of rank 
Septembers, 1862; resigned September 30, 1864. 

Church, Lucius B., Winfield, date of rank Sep- 
tember 30, 1864; promoted from Lieutenant; mus- 
tered out June 7, 1865. 

FIRST LIEUTENANT. 

Scott, Willard, Jr., Naperville, date of rank Sep- 
tember 30, 1864; promoted from Second Lieutenant; 
mustered out June 7, 1865. 

SECOND LIEUTENANT. 

Bedell, Gilbert, Winfield, date of rank June 7, 
1865; mustered out (as Sergeant) June 7, 1865. 

FIRST SERGEANT. 

Sedgwick, John A., Naperville, enlisted August 2, 
1862; discharged November 15, 1864. 

SERGEANTS. 

Kelley, Isaac D., Naperville, enlisted July 29, 
1862; mustered out June 7, 1865. 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Ill 



Carpenter, Ashley E., Milton, August 6: died at 
Scottville, Ky., November 30, 1862. 

Bedell, Gilbert, Winfield, August 4; mustered out 
June 7, 1865, First Sergeant; commissioned Second 
Lieutenant, but not mustered. 

Townsend, Perry, Downer's Grove, July 29; mus- 
tered out May 18, 1865. 



COBPOE4L8. 



Naper, Mark A., Naperville, August 6 ; mustered 
out June 7, 1865, as Sergeant. 

Town, Morris, Winfield, August 6 ; mustered out 
June 7, 1865, as Sergeant. 

Cooley, Elias A., Winfield, August 5, private ; died 
June 22, 1864 ; wounds. 

Freeto, William, Milton, July 29 ; mustered out 
May 13, 1865. 

Burns, Elias, York, August 4 ; died June 22, 1864 ; 
wounds. 

Yock, Nicholas, Naperville, August 4 ; mustered 
out June 7, 1865. 

Foster, Alexander F., Downer's Grove, August 12 ; 
discharged April 7, 1863 ; disability. 

Barr, Samuel A., Naperville, August 6 ; mustered 
out June 7, 1865. 

PRIVATES. 

Beach, Clinton, Winfield, August 5 ; promoted 
Commissary Sergeant. 

Burns, John B., York, August 2. 

Beggs, George W., Naperville, August 6 ; pro- 
moted Hospital Steward. 

Bowker, George, Bloomingdale, August 7. 

Branch, Royal D., Naperville, August 2. 

Bucks, Wesley, Lisle, August 2. 

Beidleman, William, Lisle, August 3. 

Bachlem, William, AVinfield, August 5. 

Buchannan, Albert, Winfield, August 5 ; dis- 
charged June 26, 1863 ; disability. 

Brown, William H, Winfield, August 6; pro- 
moted First Lieutenant United States Colored In- 
fantry. 

Bannister, Edmund B., Naperville, August 4 ; 
discharged January 20, 1863 ; disability. 

Babbitt, John H, Naperville, August 4. 

Balch, Homer, Naperville, August 5. 

Butz, Joseph J., Naperville, August 6. 

Coslett, Robert, Winfield, August 6 ; mustered 
out June 7, 1865, as Corporal. 

Cooper, Frederick, Winfield, August 6 ; died at 
Bowling Green, Ky., January 1, 1863. 

Cotes, John S., Winfield, August 11 ; died at Mur- 
freesboro July 25, 1863. 

Cornell, Joseph, Downer's Grove, August 11. 



Chase, Samuel B., Downer's Grove, August 11. 

Davis, Zora B., Naperville, August 6 ; discharged 
October 29, 1864 ; disability. 

Fuller, Morell, Downer's Grove, August 4 ; pro- 
moted Drum Major. 

Fowler, Daniel H., Naperville, August 7 ; trans- 
ferred to Company D, One Hundred and Fifth Illi 
nois Infantry. 

Fisher, Abram B., Naperville, August 5. 

Fey, Albert, Winfield. August 5 ; mustered out 
June 7, 1865, as Corporal. 

Gager, John T., Lisle, July 29 ; mustered out June 
7, 1865, as Corporal. 

Gushert, Conrad, York, August 4 ; discharged 
January 21, 1863 ; disability. 

Grumbine, Moses, Naperville, August 4 ; dis- 
charged May 2, 1865 ; disability. 

Hand, Lewis J., Lisle, August 5. 

Hickel, George, York, August 6. 

Hynen, Ernest, Lisle, August 4 ; killed at Averys- 
boro, N. I'., March 16, 1865. 

Hoffman, Bartholomew, Naperville, August 5. 

Hammscbmidt, Joseph, Winfield, August 5 ; mus- 
tered out July 1, 1865. 

Hughes, William S., Winfield, August 6. 

Johnston, William, Naperville, August 4 ; dis- 
charged Januaiy 21, 1863 ; disability. 

Jones, Daniel, Downer's Grove, August 6 ; mus- 
tered out July 10, 1865. 

Kenyon, Paris, York, July 29 ; died August 16, 
1864 ; wounds. 

Kummer, Henry, Lisle, August 6 ; transferred to 
Veteran Reserve Corps March 13, 1864. 

Kimball, Delos, Naperville, August 7 ; discharged 
May 23, 1863 ; disability. 

Kenyon, Nicholas R., York, August 4 ; discharged 
March 2, 1863 ; disability. 

Kessell, George, Naperville, August 6. 

Kopp, Henry G, Naperville, August 6 ; mustered 
out July 22, 1865 ; prisoner of war. 

Lindsey, Merritt, Naperville, August 3 ; died at 
Nashville, Tenn., April 9, 1864. 

Murray, Charles, Winfield, August 5. 

Motzberger, Henry, Milton, August 2. 

Mowry, Henry, Winfield, July 31. 

Meyers, Edwin B., Milton, August 4 ; discharged 
April 6, 1863 ; disability. 

Meyers, Frederick A., Milton, August 4. 

Meyers, William H., Milton, August 4 ; trans- 
ferred to Engineer Corps August 15, 1864. 

McMillan, James, Naperville, August 5. 

Mayers, Henry, Naperville, August 4. 

McQuinston, William, Lisle, August 6. 



112 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Mussleman, Harrison, Lisle, August 6. 

Norton, Henry, Naperville, August 6 ; died August 
19, 1864 ; wounds. 

Neitz, Moses, Naperville, August 15. 

O'Conner, Haius, Winfleld, August 5. 

Pratt, Lorenzo, Wheaton, August 5 ; discharged 
April 6, 1863 ; disability. 

Purnell, William, Winfleld, August 5 ; mustered 
out May 19, 1865. 

Reynolds, Alonzo L., Naperville, August 5 ; dis- 
charged January 21, 1863 ; disability. 

Rickert, Edwin C, Milton, August 4; mustered 
out June 7, 1865, as Corporal. 

Stanley, Joseph, Naperville, August 7 ; absent ; 
sick at muster out of regiment. 

Stephenson, John P., Winfleld, August 5. 

Stevens, Matthias A., Naperville, August 7. 

Strong, Robert H, Du Page County, August 3. 

Stutenroth, Charles W., Naperville, August 4 ; 
mustered out June 7 as Corporal. 

Smith, Chauncey G , Du Page County, August 9 ; 
discharged December 20, 1863 ; disability. 

Stanley, Joel, Naperville, August 3. 

Townsend, Augustus, York, Jul}' 29 ; discharged 
May 17, 1863 ; disability. 

Tucker, George, Winfleld, August 9. 

Van Veltzer, Walter, Downer's Grove, August 4 ; 
promoted Fife Major. 

Van Oven, Adelbert, Naperville, August 9. 

Wallace, Gerry, Downer's Grove, August 15. 

Weaber, Edward, York, August 9 ; mustered out 
June 7, 1865, as Corporal. 

Wright, Albert H, Naperville, August 11. 

Weaver, Daniel R., Naperville, August 4. 

Wiant, Albert H., Wheaton, August 6. 

Wilson, Moultrie, Winfleld, August 15 ; discharged 
February 20, 1863 ; disability. 

Watson, Sanford, Winfleld, August 5 ; transferred 
to Engineer Corps August 15, 1864. 

Wyman, William H, Winfleld, August 5 ; dis- 
charged January 20, 1863 ; disability. 

Zeutmeyer, Henry S., Naperville, August 5 ; died 
August 2, 1864 ; wounds. 

EECRUIT6. 

Leffler, Jeremiah, Naperville, mustered in No- 
vember 27, 1863; transferred to Company K, Six- 
teenth Illinois Infantry. 

Palmer, Alonzo L. 

COOKS OF A. D. 

Perkins, Tillman, mustered in June 1, 1863. 
Link, Robert, mustered in March 17, 1863 ; absent, 
sick, at muster out of regiment. 



COMPANY D. 

CAPTA1N6- 

Graves, Amos C, Winfleld, date of rank Septem- 
ber 2, 1862; discharged March 30, 1865. 

Graves, Judson A., Winfleld, date of rank April 
20, 1865; promoted from Sergeant; mustered out (as 
First Lieutenant) June 7, 1865. 

FIRST LIEUTENANTS. 

Jeffers, William H, Downer's Grove, date of rank 
September 2, 1862; resigned May 5, 1864. 

Peaslee, Luther L., Naperville, date of rank May 
5,1864; promoted from Second Lientenant; resigned 
September 24, 1864. 

Coffin, Edward B., Winfleld, date of rank April 
20, 1865; mustered out as Sergeant June 7, 1865. 

SECOND LIEUTENANT. 

Brown, George, Du Page County, date of rank 
June 7, 1865; mustered out as Sergeant June 7, 1865. 

FIRST 6EROEANT. 

Valette, Jonathan G., Milton, enlisted August 14, 
1862; promoted Sergeant Major. 

SERGEANTS. 

Sedgwick, George G., Bloomingdale, enlisted 
August 14; discharged February 23, 1863; disability. 

Billings, John, Jr., Winfleld, August 11; dis- 
charged February 6, 1863; disability. 

Munk, Edward, Jr., Winfleld, August 11; dis- 
charged July 11, 1863, to accept commission Four- 
teenth U. S. C. T. 

CORPORALS. 

Graves, Adoniram J., Winfleld, August 12; pro- 
moted First Sergeant, First Lieutenant and Commis- 
sioned Captain. 

Coffin, Edwin, Winfleld, August 12; First Ser- 
geant, commissioned First Lieutenant, but not 
mustered; mustered out June 7, 1865; wounded. 

Pinny, Milton, Winfleld, August 12; discharged 
April 25, 1863; disability. 

Apthorpe, George, Bloomingdale, August 14; dis- 
charged July 11, 1863, to accept commission in 
Fourteenth U. S. C. T. 

Hayes, George, Bloomingdale, August 8; died at 
South Tunnel, Tenn., December 29, 1863. 

Fowler, Ferdinand F., Naperville, August 12; dis- 
charged February 18, 1863; disability. 

Freer, Theodore R., Downer's Grove, August 14; 
died at South Tunnel, Tenn., January 30, 1863. 

MUSICIANS. 

Watts, Joseph H, Winfleld, August 14; mustered 
out June 7, 1865. 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



113 



White, Uriah C, Winfield, August 14; mustered 
out June 7, 1865. 



WAGONER. 



Wood, James H., Milton, August 15; discharged 
July 16, 1864. 

PRIVATES. 

Barrows, James, Downer's Grove, August 14. 

Berry, Isaac J., Winfield, August 14; mustered out 
June 7, 1865, as Sergeant. 

Billings, Simeon, Winfield, August 12; mustered 
out May 20, 1865. 

Bostwick, Hiram A., Winfield, August 12; mus- 
tered out June 7, 1865, as Corporal. 

Bartholomew, Charles, Winfield, August 14; died 
at South Tunnel, Tenn., January 18, 1863. 

Bostwick, Arthur, Winfield, August 14. 

Blakeman, Jacob, Downer's Grove, August 12; 
mustered out May 20, 1865. 

Brown, George, Du Page County, August 11; 
mustered out June 7, 1865, as Sergeant; commis- 
sioned Second Lieutenant, but not mustered. 

Bartholomew, Darius, Naperville, August 14. 

Collins, George, Lisle, August 14. 

Conners, James, Downer's Grove, August 14. 

Cry, David, Naperville, August 14; mustered out 
June 7, 1865, as Corporal. 

Chapman, Edward, Bloomingdale, August 7; 
killed at Dallas, Ga., May 29, 1864. 

Clark, Henry E., Bloomingdale, August 14; died 
at Gallatin, Tenn., February 8, 1863. 

Dalton, Naylor, Winfield, August 11. 

Dixon, James C, Downer's Grove, Sergeant; 
transferred to Engineer Corps August 7, 1864. 

Denny, Charles, Naperville, August 11; discharged 
September 22, 1864; insane. 

Drullard, Alvaro, Naperville, August 10; Cor- 
poral ; died at Murfreesboro September 2, 1863. 

Elsy, Isaac, Naperville, August 14; died at Gal- 
latin, Tenn., April 9, 1863; accidental wounds. 

French, Joseph G., Bloomingdale, August 12; 
mustered out June 7, 1865, as Corporal. 

Gary, ErastusN, Milton, August 14; discharged 
September, 1864, as Sergeant ; wounds. 

Givler, Solomon, Jr., Naperville, August 14 ; died 
at Scottsville, Ky., December 5, 1862. 

Godfry, Luther N., Bloomingdale, August 13 ; 
discharged February 24, 1863; disability. 

Gumpsheimer, Christ, Downer's Grove, August 
14 ; discharged January 15, 1864. 

Goodel, Heury, Du Page County, August 12. 

Hatch, Reuben R., Lisle, August 10 ; discharged 
April 1, 1863; disability. 



Ingalls, Abner E., Lisle, August 10 ; discharged 
March 14, 1863 ; disability. 

Ingalls, Andrew E., Lisle, August 14 ; died at Gal- 
latin, Tenn., February 14, 1863. 

Kumner, Herman, Milton, August 10 ; mustered 
out as Corporal ; wounded. 

Leonard, Charles, Naperville, August 10 ; killed 
Averysboro, N. C, March 16, 1865. 

Landon, Dwight, Bloomingdale, August 14. 

Lawrence, Charles, Bloomingdale, August 14 ; 
discharged May 29, 1863 ; disability. 

Lilly, Emery A., Bloomingdale, August 14 ; left 
at Scottsville, Ky„ November 24, 1862. 

Linck, Antone, Lisle, August 14 ; mustered out as 
Corporal. 

Meyrs, John M., Downer's Grove, August 12 . 
died at Gallatin, Tenn., April 8, 1863. 

McQuestion, Christ, Naperville, August 14 ; dis- 
charged December 23, 1863 ; disability. 

Munk, James C, Winfield, August 14 ; killed at 
Resaca, Ga., May 15, 1864. 

Meachem, Lucius, Bloomingdale, August 6 ; dis- 
charged December 5, 1862 ; disability. 

Morey, John, Lisle, August 15; discharged April 
18, 1865. 

Miles, James, Lisle, August 14; discharged De- 
cember, 29, 1862. 

Palmer, Alonzo, Lisle, August 14; transferred to 
Company D March 21, 1863. 

Puffer, Charles, Lisle, August 14. 

Pierce, John H., Bloomingdale, August 14; died 
at Frankfort, Ky., November 13, 1863. 

Robberts, Charles, Naperville, August 14; dis- 
charged January 9, 1863; disability. 

Rogers, Bloomingdale, August 7; mustered out as 
Sergeant; was a prisoner. 

Rogers, Dedrich, Lisle, August 14. 

Ruckerick, Henry, Downer's Grove, August 12; 
mustered out June 7, 1865; wounded. 

Richards, Samuel T., Lisle, August 13; died South 
Tunnel, Tenn., January 28, 1863; wounded. 

Resequie, Lucien V., Winfield, August 14; mus- 
tered out May 19, 1865. 

Streblow, Frederick, Downer's Grove, August 14; 
mustered out as Corporal. 

Shimelspfenig, Frank, Naperville, August 14 ; 
mustered out as Corporal. 

Sihroder, John, Naperville, August 13; trans- 
ferred to Mississippi Marine Brigade March 25, 1863. 

Straul, Antone, Lisle, August 14. 

Straul, Antonie, August 14. 

Shilling, Jacob, Downer's Grove, August 12. 



114 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Stanley, Elisha, Naperville, August 14; killed at 
Kenesaw Mountain June 16, 1864. 

Taylor, Rufus B., Lisle, August 10. 

Thompson, Wiiliam, York, August 14; transferred 
to navy June 30, 1863. 

Umberger, Hiram, Naperville, August 13; mus- 
tered out July 1, 1865, as Corporal: prisoner of war. 

Wray, William T. ( Winfleld, August 12; killed 
at Resaca, 6a., May 15, 1864. 

Wheatley, Isaac, Lisle, August 11; mustered out 
as Sergeant. 

Wilson, Rolon, Winfleld, August 12; discharged 
April 4, 1863. 

Wallace, Rosell, Bloomingdale, August 14. 

Winop, Daniel, Downer's Grove, August 13; trans- 
ferred to Engineer Corps August 7, 1864. 

Yender, Allis, Lisle, August 14. 

RECRUITS. 

Cline, Lewis, Downer's Grove, October 18, 1864; 
transferred to Company P, Sixteenth Illinois Infan- 
try. 

Edlie, J., Downer's Grove, Oct. 18, 1864; trans- 
ferred to Company P, Sixteenth Illinois Infantry. 

Fowler, Daniel, Naperville; died at Gallatin, 
Tenn., March 28, 1863. 

Graves, James D., Naperville, November 27, 1863; 
transferred to Company F, Sixteenth Illinois In- 
fantry. 

Gieble, John, Downer's Grove, October 18, 1864; 
transferred to Company F, Sixteenth Illinois In- 
fantry. 

Gerlin, John, Downer's Grove, October 18, 1864; 
transferred to Company F, Sixteenth Illinois In- 
fantry. 

Mayo, Alfred H. Naperville, November 27, 1863; 
transferred to Company F, Sixteenth Illinois In- 
fantry. 

Mochel, George, Downer's Grove, October 18, 
1864; transferred to Company F, Sixteenth Illinois 
Infantry. 

Wolf, George, September 20, 1862. 

Winslow, Edward M., September 20, 1862. 

COOK8 OP A. D. 

Ayers, Peter, October 14, 1863; died at Nashville, 
Tenn., March 4, 1864. 

Jones, Robert, November 14. 1863; absent, sick, 
at muster out of regiment. 

COMPANY P. 

CAPTAINS. 

Daniels, Seth F., Wheaton; date of rank, Sept- 
ember 2, 1862; discharged June 7, 1865. 



Adams, Samuel, Wayne; date of rank, September 
2, 1862; resigned April 13, 1864. 

FIRST LIEUTEXANT8. 

Tirtlatt, William M., Milton; date of rank April 
13, 1864; promoted from Sergeant to Second Lieu- 
tenant November 28, 1864. 

Smith, Melvin, Winfleld; date of rank April 13, 
1864; promoted from Sergeant. 

SECOND LIEUTENANTS. 

Porter, Warner, York; date of rank September 2, 
1862; resigned April 17. 1863. 

Cram, George F., Wheaton; date of rank June 7, 
1865 ; commissioned, but not mustered ; muster out 
June 7, 1865, First Sergeant ; promoted from Cor- 
poral ; wounded. 

SEROEANT8. 

Wheeler, Henry C, Milton, enlisted August 8, 
1862; promoted Second Lieutenant Fourteenth U. 
S. C. T. 

Wolcott, Morgan, Wayne, enlisted August 5, 
1862; discharged March 4, 1863, disability. 

Perry, Daniel E., Winfleld, enlisted August 9, 
1862: died July 29, 1863. 

CORPORAL8. 

Boutwell, George W., Wayne, enlisted July 31, 
discharged July 6, 1864, to accept promotion in U. 
S. C. T. 

Akin, Sterlin D., Wayne, enlisted August 5, 1862; 
died at Frankfort, Ky., October 24, 1862. 

Smith, George A., Wayne, August 5, 1862; trans- 
ferred to Mississippi Marine Brigade March 2, 1863. 

Perry, Harris, York, August 3, 1862; discharged 
March 6, 1863, as private; disability. 

Meachem, Marchal E., Milton, August 10, 1862, 
died at Scottsville, Ky. , November 25, 1862. 

Thompson, John, Jr., Wayne; enlisted August 5; 
1862; discharged April 20, 1863; disability. 

Knine, George W., Bloomingdale, enlisted Aug- 
ust 7, 1862. 

MUSICIANS. 

Kenyon, George W., York, enlisted July 29, 1862; 
mustered out June 7, 1865, as private. 

Standish, Hiram C, Lisle, enlisted August 11, 
1862; discharged February 19, 1863; disability. 

WAOONER. 

Carter, William, Wayne, enlisted August 5, 1862; 
discharged May 20, 1863; disability. 

PRIVATES. 

Adams, Charles II., Wayne, August 5. 
Ackerman, Alonzo, Milton, August 22. 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



115 



Baker, Silas, "Wheatou, August 3. 

Bacheider, John, Milton, August 9; promoted 
Sergeant; died August 2, 186-1, wounds. 

Braud, David N., Waj'ne, August 5; died Bowl- 
ing Green, Ky., December 18; 1862. 

Blank, Joel, Wayne, August 5; died Bowling 
Green, Ky., November 14, 1862. 

Boutwell, Charles M., Wayne, August 5; pro- 
moted Sergeant. 

Brannon. Patrick, Winfield, August 7; died about 
June 25, 1864; wounds. 

Brown, William, Wayne, July 31; discharged 
October 17, 1864; wounds. 

Brody, James, Bloomingdale; August 5; mustered 
out as Corporal; wounded. 

Conner, Samuel F., Wayne, August 13; dis- 
charged October 30, 1862; disability. 

Compton, Henry D., Bloomingdale, August 9. 

Cary, Edward, Winfield, August 7; wounded. 

Clark, Norman S., Wayne, July 31; mustered out 
Sergeant. 

Congleton, James A., Bloomingdale, August 7; 
mustered out as Corporal. 

Dissing, Aaron, Naperville, August 22; wounded 
twice. 

Depue, Hanson J., Downer's Grove, August 11; 
discharged September 10, 1864; wounds. 

DeWolf, Leonard E., Milton, August 8; dis- 
charged January 3, 1863; disability. 

Ehle, Harmon S., Bloomingdale, August 7; mus- 
tered out June 10, 1865, as Corporal. 

Fairbank, James H. Winfield, July 31. 

Fletcher, W. Nichols, Wayne, August 5; mustered 
out as Sergeant. 

Fancher, Allison, Wayne, August 13; discharged 
January 11, 1863. for disability. 

Filer. Frank, York, August 9 ; absent, sick, at mus- 
ter out of regiment. 

Geer, Daniel V., Winfield, July 26; died January 
16, 1863. 

Geer, Lewis O, Winfield, August 3; discharged 
January 19, 1863. for disability. 

Oriswold, Martin E., Wheaton, August 22. 

Grant, Isaac.l.. York, July 29; discharged March 
8. 1863, foi disability. 

Grant, David J.. York, August 7; mustered out 
May 22, 1865, as Sergeant. 

Grant, Orris W., York, August 7. 
Green, Edwin, Wayne, August 5; discharged April 
7, 1863, for disability. 

Gray, Virgil V., Wayne, August 22; discharged 
April 13, 1863. 



Holmes, Thomas W., Milton, July 30; absent 
wounded at muster out of regiment. 

Hadley, Amis L., Milton, August 8. 

Hammond, Perry H., Wayne, July 31; died at 
Nashville, Tenn., December 24, 1863. 

Hammond, John, Jr., Wayne, July 31; mustered 
out June 7, 1865, as Corporal. 

Johnston, James K., Downer's Grove, August 9. 

Jipson, Thomas. Milton, August 22; transferred to 
Engineer Corps, August 15, 1864. 

Keniston, Uriah B., Wayne, July 29; wounded. 

Kingsley, Henry S., Milton, July 28; died January 
17, 1863. 

Knickerbocker, Wilson, Milton, July 30; died at 
Louisville, Ky., November 11, 1862. 

Long, Silas, Wheaton, July 26. 

Lewis, William, Wayne, August 13; wounded. 

Mills, Samuel, Wayne, August 4; transferred to 
Company I. 

Mattocks, Andrew J., Milton, August 5; died Au- 
gust 5, 1864. 

Miller, George, York, August 8; mustered out as 
Corporal. 

Miller, Albert, Y'ork, August 9. 

McGilvery, John, Wayne, August 20; wounded 
twice. 

Minor, Briton, Bloomingdale, August 5. 

McLean, Daniel, Wayne, July 31, Corporal; trans- 
ferred to navy July 15, 1864. 

Mullen, Orlando J., Wayne, July 31; discharged 
March 22, 1864, for disability. 

McGraw, Patrick, Milton, August 6; wounded. 

Owen, ElishaG., Wayne, July 31; died March 28, 
1863. 

Pepper, Patrick, Wayne, August 1 ; transferred to 
Company I. 

Parker, Dexter, Milton, August 15; mustered out 
May 17, 1865. 

Porter, William, Wayne, August 6. 

Rice, Arthur P., Wheaton, July 26; killed at Res- 
aca, Ga., May 15, 1864. 

Rudd. William C, Wheaton, August 10. 

Reed, George B., Wayne, August 13. 

Rush, Green B., Downer's Grove. August 8. 

Sullivan, John, Milton, July 27. 

Stanham, John. Wa3 f ne, August 5. 

Samuelson, Gustavus, Wayne, August 10; dis- 
charged April 20, 1863, for disability. 

Stover, Lewis C, Milton, August 10; discharged 
December 15, 1863; wounded. 

Stockton, Joseph, Winfield, August 7; wounded. 

Sayer, Warren M., Wayne, July 31. 



116 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Trick, Richard A., Wayne, July 30; discharged 
December 17, 1862; disability. 

Talmage, George H., York, August 9. 

Vanhoughton. John, Milton, August 22; mustered 
out as Corporal. 

Wright, Benjamin F., Milton, July 28; supposed 
transferred to naval service. 

Wheeler, John W., Wayne, July 29. 

Whitlock, Ogden, Milton, August 20; promoted 
to Sergeant Major. 

Wakelee, William H., Wheaton, August 3; dis- 
charged for disability. 

Wildman, Joseph, Milton, August 5; discharged 
December 20, 1862; disability. 

Wheelon, Peter, Milton, August 13; transferred 
to Company I. 

Yander, Samuel, Lisle, August 13; died February 
23, 1863. 

RECRUITS. 

Grant, Isaac J., Milton, October 10; transferred to 
Company K, Sixteenth Illinois Infantry. 

Hiatt, Luther L., Wheaton, October 15. 

Nash, Delos, Milton, October 15; discharged Jan- 
uary 8, 1863; disability. 

Riley, George W., Milton, October 15; mustered 
out as Corporal. 

Wilcox, Herbert W., Milton, October 15; dis- 
charged May 26, 1865. 

COOK OF A. D. 

Branch, John, June 1, 1863; absent, sick, at mus- 
ter out of regiment. 

COMPANY I. 

CAPTAINS. 

Jones, Enos, Milton, date of rank September 2, 
1862; resigned December 17, 1862. 

Locke, William O., Addison, date of rank Decem- 
ber 17, 1862; discharged August 25, 1864. 

Bender, George A., Wheaton, date of rank Oc- 
tober 14, 1864; discharged March 18, 1865; promoted. 

Unold, John, Addison, date of rank May 19, 1865; 
mustered out as First Lieutenant June 7, 1865; pro- 
moted. 

FIRST I. EUTENANTS. 

Locke, William O., Addison, date of rank Sep- 
tember 2, 1862; promoted. 

Frank, David, Babcock's Grove, date of rank, 
May 19, 1865; mustered out as Sergeant June 7, 1865. 

SECOND LIEUTENANTS. 

Fischer, Augustus II., Addison, date of rank Sep- 
tember 2. 1862; died August 13, 1864. 

Reinking, Henry, Addison, date of rank June 7, 
1865, mustered out as Sergeant June 7, 1865. 



SERGEANTS. 

Pierce, Hannibal, Addison, enlisted August 15; 
discharged January 15, 1864, as First Sergeant, to 
accept commission in Sixteenth U. S. C. T. 

Wagner, Joseph, Danby, enlisted August 15; ab- 
sent, wounded, at muster out of regiment. 

Baker, John, Wheaton, enlisted August 15; pri- 
vate, absent, sink at muster out of Regiment. 

CORPORALS. 

Plummet', Sephemus, enlisted August 15. 

Knust, Frederick, Addison, enlisted August 15; 
discharged April 24, 1863. 

Rainking, Henry, Addison, enlisted August 15; 
commissioned Second Lieutenant, but not mus- 
tered. 

Smith, John, Addison, enlisted August 15, mus- 
tered out June 7, 1865, as Sergeant; wounded. 

Wigand, Joseph, Danby, enlisted August 15; mus- 
tered out July 1, 1865; prisoner of war. 

Schmidt, Louis, Addison, enlisted August 15; mus- 
tered out June 7, 1865, as Sergeant. 

Werner, Jacob, Addison, enlisted August 15. 



Ashe, August, Addison, August 15; died May 17, 
1864; wounds. 

Anderson. William, Addison, August 15. 

Andres. Valentine, Addison, August 15; died at 
South Tunnel, Tenn., January 1, 1863. 

Baker, John H, Addison, August 15. 

Brockmau, Henry, Addison, August 15. 

Brems, John, Bloomingdale, August 15; trans- 
ferred to Engineer Corps August 15, 1864. 

Brems, Henry, Wheaton, August 15. 

Dohlman, Jochine, Wheaton, August 15. 

Dirking, William, Wheaton, August 15. 

Damermays, Henry, Addison, August 15; died at 
Gallatin, Tenn., February 3, 1863. 

Dolliuger, Anton, Danby, August 15; mustered 
out as Corporal. 

Fullmau, Frederick, Addison, August 15; died at 
Gallatin, Tenn., June 5, 1863. 

Fredericks, George, Addison, August 15; dis- 
charged January 10, 1863. 

Fischer, Diedrick, Addison, August 15; died at 
Louisville, Ky., Februry 10, 1863. 

Fredricks, John, Addison, August 15. 

Frank, David, Babcock's Grove, August 15, com- 
missioned First Lieutenant, but not mustered; mus- 
tered out June 7, 1865, as First Sergeant. 

Foust, John, Babcock's Grove, August 15; died 
at Louisville, January 8, 1863. 




Q&-ftr/&-*XZx> . 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



119 



Fork, Gerhard H., Babcoek's Grove, August 15; 
died at South Tunnel, Tenn., January 20, 1863. 

Gray, Fredrick J., Addison, August 15. 

Gletcher, Fredrick, Addison, August 15; mustered 
out as Corporal. 

Gimble, John, Addison, August 15; mustered out 
as Sergeant. 

Huehi, Gerhard, Addison, August 15; discharged 
December 14, 1862. 

Herbst, Henry, Addison, August 15; died at South 
Tunnel, Tenn., January 1, 1863. 

Holdorf, Gotlieb, Addison, August 15. 

Herneman, David, Addison, August 15. 

Hinton, Edward, Addison, August 15; transferred 
to Engineer Corps August 15, 1864. 

Hanebuth, August, Addison, August 15; mustered 
out as Corporal. 

Hanebuth, William, Addison, August 15. 

Heller, Henry, Addison, August 15; absent, sick, 
at mustering out of regiment. 

Jenkins, William F., Addison, August 15; mustered 
out June 7, 1865, as Corporal. 

Kemph, Samuel, Wheaton, August 15; mustered 
out as Corporal. 

Konson, Henry, Wheaton, August 15. 

Koxing, Henry, Cottage Hill, August 15; died at 
Bowling Green, Ky., November 25, 1862. 

Kline, John, Wheaton, August 15. 

Kniepenberg, Henry, Addison, August 15. 

Kessel, Christian, Addison, August 15; mustered 
out July 1, 1865. 

Lenehrson, Frederick, Addison, August 15; mus- 
tered out as Corporal. 

Leneseuhop, William, Addison, August 15; died 
at Gallatin, Tenn., December 18, 1862. 

Leseberg, Frederick, Addison, August 15; died at 
Gallatin, Tenn., February 23, 1863. 

Messenbrink, Frederick, Addison, August 15. 

Messenbrink, Lewis, Addison, August 15; 
charged February 27, 1865; disability. 

Mueller, Philip, Addison, August 15. 

Maas, Peter, Babcoek's Grove, August 15; 
charged May 23, 1863. 

Mishe, Augustus. Wheaton, August 15; absent, 
sick, at mustering out of regiment. 

Mills, Samuel, Wheaton, August 15; discharged 
February 19, 1863; disability. 

Mehring, Henry, Addison, August 15; died at 
Murfreesboro, Tenn., July 4, 1863. 

Muss, Nicholas, Addison, August 15; discharged 
February 19, 1863; disability. 

Newman, Andrew, Cottage Hill, August 15; died 
May 27, 1864; wounds. 



dis- 



dis- 



Pepper, Patrick, Wheaton, August 15; discharged 
December 31, 1862; disability. 

Ritter, Carl, Addison, August 15; died at Bowling 
Green, Ky., November 27, 1862. 

Ruprecht, Henry, Addison, August 15; transferred 
to Invalid Corps February 24, 1864. 

Schmidt, John H, Addison, August 15; mustered 
out as Corporal. 

Schott, Adam J., Addison, August 15; discharged 
May 3; disability. , 

Spangenberg, Christian, Addison, August 15; died 
at Albany, Ind., December 4, 1862. 

Schoh, John W. H., Addison, August 15; died at 
Gallatin, Tenn., May 15, 1863. 

Stuve, Diedrick, Addison, August 15. 

Schultz, Carl, Naperville, August 15; died at Gal 
latin, Tenn., March 12, 1863. 

Tegtman, Henry, Addison, August 15; died May 
17, 1864; wounds. 

Timmer, Herman, Cottage Hill, August 15; dis- 
charged March 3, 1863, as Corporal; disability. 

Volberding, Lewis A., Addison, August 15; dis- 
charged April 22, 1863, as Corporal; disability. 

Wilke, Charles, Addison, August 15. 

Webber, Frederick. Addison; mustered out June 
19, 1865. 

Wailon, Peter, Wheaton, August 15; transferred 
to Engineer Corps August 15, 1864. 

Weisman, Henry, Addison, August 15; died at 
Louisville, Ky., December 25, 1862. 

Zarzo, John, Bloomingdale, August 15. 

RECRUITS. 

Comro, Adolf, Addison, October 12, 1864; trans- 
ferred to Company H, Sixteenth Illinois Infantry. 

Holt, Henry, Addison, October 12, 1864; trans- 
ferred to Company H, Sixteenth Illinois Infantry. 

Jones, David, Milton; died at Milton, 111., October 
8, 1862. 

Mockling, Henry, Addison, Oct. 12, 1864; trans- 
ferred to Company H, Sixteenth Illinois Infantry. 

Wolf, Christian, Addison, October 12, 1864; trans- 
ferred to Company H, Sixteenth Illinois Infantry. 

COOKS OF A. U 

Levi, , August 20, 1863; absent, sick, at mus- 
ter out of regiment. 

Roman, , September 15, 1863; died March 28, 

1865; wounds. 

The date affixed to the names shows the 

time of the eulisment of each soldier. 

The date of mustering out or discharged is 

also given to such soldiers as were honorably 

o 



120 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



discharged before the regiment was mustered 
out. The term " discharged " means an honor- 
able discharge. 

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVENH REGIMENT. 

The One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Regi- 
ment of Illinois Infantry was organized at 
Camp Douglas and mustered into service Sep- 
tember 6, 1862. *It started out with 887 men 
and returned with but 231 — the survivors of a 
hundred battles — who were mustered out at 
Chicago June 10, 1865. It had four men from 
Du Page County in its ranks. 

COMPANY A. 

Mosely, Albert, Naperville, enlisted August 6, 
mustered in September 5, 1862; died at Oswego, 111., 
September 7, 1863. 

Mosely, Henry, enlisted and mustered in at the 
same time; absent sick at muster out of regiment. 

COMPANY F. 

Lemis, Daniel W., Naperville, enlisted August 11; 
mustered in Septembers, 1862; detached at muster 
out of regiment. 

COMPANY K. 

Ruckel, Philip H., York, enlisted August 14 and 
mustered in September 5, 1862; died at Walnut 
Hill, Miss., July 3, 1863. 

Regiments from number 132 to 143 inclu- 
sive were enlisted for only 100 days' service. 
These fresh recruits were designed to hold 
places already in possession of the Union 
forces while the veterans were pushing into 
the extreme limits of the South. 



ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SECOND REGIMENT. 

The One Hundred and Thirty-second Regi- 
ment of Illinois Infantry was organized at 
Camp Fry, Chicago, and mustered in for 100 
days' service from June 1, 1864. It moved 
June 6 for Columbus, Ky., aud arrived on the 
8th. It was sent to Paducah, 111., where it 
remained till its term expired, when it moved 
to Chicago, and was mustered out October 17 
1864. It had fifteen men from Du Page 
County. 



company c. 
Uflord, Charles, Naperville, enlisted May 31. 

company h. 
Sedgwick, John A., Naperville, Captain; date of 
rank June 1, 1864. 
Rook, Stephen, Naperville; recruit. 

COMPANY I. 

Herrick, Herrold C, Naperville, Sergeant, enlist- 
ed May 16, 1864. 

Wright, William P., Naperville, Corporal, enlist- 
ed May 19, 1864. 

Bickford, Levi F., Wheaton, Corporal, enlisted 
May 17, 1864. 

Bunn, Isaac H., Warrenville, enlisted May 18, 
1864. 

Conklin, Lewis, Naperville, enlisted May 17. 1864. 

Denham, George W., Warrenville, enlisted May 
13, 1864. 

Hall, Charles H., Naperville, enlisted May 20, 
1864. 

Hallam, Robert, Naperville, enlisted May 12, 1864. 

Long, Luther, Wheaton, enlisted Ma}' 21, 1864. 

McNeal, John, Naperville, enlisted May 20, 1864. 

Sellers, Edward B., Wheaton, enlisted May 12, 
1864. 

Thatcher, Charles D., Naperville, enlisted May 
16, 1864. 

ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIRST REGIMENT. 

The Hundred and Forty-first Regiment of 
Illinois Infantry was mustered into service 
June 16, and mustered out October 10, 1864, it 
being organized for one hundred da3's' service. 
It had eighty men from Du Page County. 

COMPANY G. 

Town, Albert, Winfleld. 

COLONEL. 

Bronson, Stephen, Milton. 

CAPTAIN. 

James, Albert S., Dan by. 

FIR6T LIEUTENANT. 

Churchill, A. Danby. 

SECOND LIEUTENANT. 

McChesney, Joseph R., Danby. 

MUSICIANS. 

Eldridge, David, York. 
Vallette, Edward, Milton. 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



121 



pim ATKS. 



Ackerman, Miles, Milton; mustered out as Cor- 
poral. 

Bronson, Charles; mustered out as First Sergeant. 

Bird, Henry; mustered out as Corporal. 

Bisbey, Bruce; mustered out as Corporal. 

Barnes, William; mustered out as Corporal. 
Burback, Augustus T., Elgin. 

Churchill, Andrew, Milton. 

Cook, Nathaniel. Milton. 

Cheney, Eugene M., Milton. 

Dodge, Parker C, Downer's Grove. 

DeWolf, Franklin, Milton. 

Doherty, George, Elgin. 

Eldridge, George W., Elgin. 

Efland, Ernst, Milton. 

Edwards, John, York. 

Finnamore, Henry, Milton. 

Ginter, William, Elgin. 

Giblin, Henry, Downer's Grove. 

Gibbons, John J., Elgin. 

Holmes, Alanson N., Milton; mustered out as Cor- 
poral. 

Hockaday, William, Addison. 

Hatch, Henry M., Downer's Grove; promoted 
Sergeant. 

Hennessy. Michael, Milton. 

Hines, Fred, Downer's Grove. 

Hubble, John, Milton. 

Hill, David, Milton. 

Harrington, James H., York. 

Hageman, Francis C, Milton; promoted Assist- 
ant Surgeon. 

Jewell, Andrew, Milton. 

Jamison, Hugh, Milton. 

Johnson, William H, Milton. 

Kane, Thomas, Milton. 

Knutt, Herman, York. 

Kelly, James, Winfield. 

Litchfield, Cyrenieus W., York; mustered out as 
Sergeant. 

Luke, Robert B., Milton. 

Lichundguth, Michael, Downer's Grove. 

Myers, Edwin R., Milton; mustered out as Ser- 
geant. 

Muzzy, Harrison, Milton. 

McCormic, John, Milton. 

Myers, Charles M., Milton. 

Newton, William C, Milton. 

Nickerson, James D., Milton; mustered out as 
Corporal. 

Peck, Sanford, York. 



Pierce, William H, Bloomingdale. 

Puffer, George W., Downer's Grove; died at Col- 
umbus, Ky., August 19, 1864. 

Peters, John, Elgin. 

Quigley, Adelbert, Milton. 

Rickert, George, Milton; mustered out as Corporal. 

Richardson, Henry, Milton. 

Sandercook, George, Milton. 

Stacy, Philo W., Milton; mustered out as Cor- 
poral. 

Shepherd, William, Downer's Grove. 

Smith, John, Downer's Grove. 
| jSabiu, Charles A., Milton; mustered out as Cor- 
poral. 

Sprout, William, Milton. 

Steavens, John, Milton. 

Smith, Charles, Milton. 

Thompson, Alexander, Milton. 

Vallette, John O., Milton; promoted Hospital 
Steward. 

Vallette, Henry A., Milton; mustered out as Cor- 
poral. 

Warnock, Benjamin F., Elgin. 

White, James, Milton. 

White, Michael, Milton. 

Wallace, Henry, Downer's Grove. 

Walsh, Thomas, Windfield. 

Wilson, Alexander, Dowmer's Grove. 

Weaber, William, York. 

Wing, John P., Milton. 

Young, Andrew, Milton. 

Zeir, Peter, Milton. 

Zerell, Ferdinand, Milton. 

Hagerman, Francis C, Milton; recruit. 

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SECOND REGIMENT. 

The One Hundred and Fifty-second Regi- 
ment of Illinois Infantry was organized at 
Camp Butler February 18, 1865, for one 3 r ear, 
and mustered out of service at Memphis, Tenn., 
the following September, on the 11th, the war 
having closed before its term had expired. It 
had one man from Du Page County. 

COMPANY G. 

Miller, William R., York. 
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-THIRD REGIMENT. 

The One Hundred and Fifty-third Regiment 
of Illinois Infantry was for one year's service. 



122 



HISTOKY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



It was organized at Camp Fry, and was mus- 
tered in February 27, 1865. Its chief mission 
was to defend the Nashville & Chattanooga 
Railroad. It was mustered out at Memphis, 
September 15, 1865. The number of men from 
Du Page County in it was seventy-five, as fol- 
lows : 

company c. 

Adams, Hiram, Wayne. 

Barter, Franklin, Wayne ; died at Nashville, 
Tenn., March 16, 1865. 

Barther, William, Bloomingdale. 

Bushe, George, Wayne. 

Chisholm, Oliver P., Bloomingdale; promoted to 
Second Lieutenant. 

Eastman, Edwin, Bloomingdale, Corporal. 

Fowler, Charles, Bloomingdale, Wagoner. 

Grow, Freeman, Bloomingdale. 

Gage, James H., Wayne. 

Hall, Charles A., Wayne. 

Hammond, Abram, Wayne. 

Hemmingway, Charles E., Wayne. 

Johnson, William H., Milton; promoted to Com- 
missary Sergeant. 

King, George T., Wayne. 

McAIeer, John, Bloomingdale, Sergeant. 

McKillips, Albert H., Wayne. 

McKillips, William M., Wayne. 

McNaught, Ezekiel, Wayne. 

O'Brien, Henry, Bloomingdale; discharged June 
1, 1865. 

Ray, Lewis C, Bloomingdale, Corporal; absent, 
sick, at muster out of regiment. 

Shaw, Willis, Bloomingdale, Musician. 

Shaw, George W., Bloomingdale. 

Smith, Albert E., Wayne. 

Turner, August, Wayne. 

Wheeler, Danforth M., Bloomingdale. 

COMPANY D. 

Art, James J., York; mustered out July 25, 1865. 

Atherton, Lucius W., York; absent, sick, at mus- 
ter out of regiment. 

Balcom, Truxton H., York. 

Delano, William B., York; mustered out May 24, 
1865. 

Fuller, Alonzo W., York; promoted to Second 
Lieutenant. 

Hulett, John. 

Sperry, William O., York ; mustered out as Cor- 
poral. 



Tuttle, Francis L., York; mustered out as Cor- 
poral. 

COMPANY E. 

Brown, Alfred, Addison. 
Buckner, Daniel. Winfield. 
Johnson, Samuel, Addison. 
Nicholas, Samuel, Addison. 
Reddick, Austin, Addison. 
Williams. John H. 

COMPANY I. 

Warnock, Benjamin F., Milton, Sergeant; pro- 
moted to Second Lieutenant. 

Rickert, George J., Milton, Sergeant; mustered 
out as First Sergeant. 

Cheeney, Eugene M., Milton, Sergeant; promoted 
to Quartermaster's Sergeant. 

Howard, Charles H., Milton; absent with leave at 
muster out of regiment. 

Miller, George T., Milton, Corporal, mustered 
out as Sergeant. 

Miner, Ithamer, Milton, Corporal. 

Wilson, Walter S., Winfield, Corporal; mustered 
out as Sergeant. 

Dore. Thomas, Winfield, Corporal. 

Aitkin, Walter, Winfield. 

Anderson, Andrew, Winfield. 

Brown, Luther D., York. 

Bristol, Peleg, York. 

Bristol, Augustus, York. 

Bohlander, Philip G., Milton. 

Bohlander, Henry, Milton. 

Boardman, Albert, Winfield. 

Cleveland, Sylvester J., Milton. 

Denham, Robert, Winfield. 

Ginter, William, Milton; wagoner. 

Lewis, Fletcher, Milton. 

Moore, Oscar, Milton. 

O'Brien, Thomas, Winfield. 

Olsen, Sinert, Winfield. 

Perkins, William F., Winfield. 

Piatt, William T.. Milton; discharged July 16, 
1865, for disability. 

Ranston, S., York; discharged August 31, 1865, 
for disability. 

Stephen, Archibald, Milton. 

Sprout, John, Milton. 

Soler, John Dexter, Winfield. 

Tansel, Rand, Milton; absent, sick, at muster out 
of regiment. 

Town, Albert S., Winfield. 

Weaver, John, Milton. 

Walan, Henry, Milton. 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY 



123 



"Wilson, Elliot, Winfield. 

Young, Andrew, Milton ; mustered out as Cor- 
poral. 

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIXTH REGIMENT. 

The One Hundred and Fifty-sixth Regiment 
of Illinois Infantry were enlisted for one year. 
It was mustered into service at Camp Fry 
March 9, 1865, and was detailed to guard the 
railroad between Chattanooga, Teun., and Dal- 
ton, Ga., and subsequently to do patrol duty at 
Memphis. It was mustered out at Springfield, 
111., in September, 1865. It had ninety-nine men 
from Du Page County in its ranks as follows : 

COMPANY A. 

MUSICIAN. 

Zase, Andrew, Addison, enlisted February 18, 
1865; mustered out September 20, 18G5. 

PRIVATES 

Alexander, Samuel, Addison, February 18, 1865 
mustered out September 20, 1865. 

Berry, Washington, Addison, February 18, 1865 
mustered out September 20, 1865. 

Breese, James M., Addison, February 18, 1865 
mustered out September 20, 1865. 

Durfey, Jefferson, Addison, February 18, 1865 
mustered out September 20, 1865. 

Killey, Francis M., Addison, February 18, 1865 
mustered out September 20, 1865. 

Stowers, Robert W., Addison, February 18, 1865 
absent, sick, at muster out of regiment. 

COMPANY D. 

CAPTAIN. 

Blanchard, William, Downer's Grove, date of 
rank March 9, 1865; resigned June 14, 1865. 

FIHST LIEUTENANTS. 

Bard, Reuben W., Naperville, date of rank March 
9, 1865; resigned May 31, 1865. 

Hudson, David G., date of rank June 12. 1865; 
mustered out September 20, 1865. 

SECOND LIEUTENANTS. 

Mertz, Solomon E., Lisle, date of rank March 9, 
1865; resigned June 13, 1865. 

Wright, William P., Naperville, date of rank 
June 21, 1865; promoted from Sergeant, then Cap- 
tain; mustered out September 20, 1865. 



SERGEANTS. 



Heillegass, William H., Naperville, enlisted Feb- 
ruary 25, 1865; mustered out September 20, 1865, as 
First Sergeant. 

Crampton, William M., Naperville, enlisted March 
1, 1865; absent at muster out of regiment. 

Hall, George, Naperville, enlisted February 25. 
1865; mustered out September 20, 1865. 

Brown, Jones B., Downer's Grove, February 25, 
1865; mustered out May 16, 1865. 



CORPORALS. 



Weaver, Harvey, Naperville. enlisted February 
25, 1865; mustered out September 20, 1865, as Ser- 
geant. 

Dudley, Edward C, Lisle, enlisted February 25, 
1865; mustered out September 20, 1865, as Sergeant. 

Knauss, George F., Lisle; enlisted February 25, 
1865; mustered out September 20, 1865. 

Thatcher, Charles T., Naperville; enlisted Febru- 
ary 25, 1865; mustered out September 20, 1865. 

Kulp, George J., Naperville; enlisted February 5, 
1865; mustered out September 20, 1865. 

Wilson, Alexander, Downer's Grove; enlisted Feb- 
ruary 25, 1865; mustered out September 20, 1865. 

Rich, Lewis M., Downer's Grove; enlisted March 
1, 1865; mustered out September 20, 1865. 

Miller, Levi, Naperville; enlisted February 25, 
1865; mustered out September 20, 1865. 



MUSICIANS. 



Shepherd, Ralph A., Downer's Grove; enlisted 
February 24, 1865; mustered out September 20, 1865. 

Aaron, Julius, Naperville; enlisted March 1; mus- 
tered out May 20, 1865, as private. 



Esher, Martin E., Lisle; enlisted February 24, 
1865; mustered out September 20, 1865. 



Atzel. John, Downer's Grove, March 1, 1865. 

Atwood, William, Downer's Grove, Februar_v 24, 
1865; died, date and place unknown. 

Berry, Charles II.. Downer's Grove, March 2, 
1865; mustered out February 20, 1865. 

Bateman, John W., Downer's Grove, February 24. 
1865. 

Brown, David, Downer's Grove, February 25, 1865. 

Bapst, Lewis, Downer's Grove. February 29. 

Compte, Eugene, Naperville. February 25. 

Craigmile, Alexander, Downer's Grove, February 
25, 1865. 



124 



HISTORY OF DU PAUE COUNTY. 



Chomann, Jacob, Lisle, February 25, 1865. 

Drew, Robert, Lisle, February 25, 1865. 

Davenport, Oscar, Downer's Grove, March 1, 1865; 
absent at muster out of regiment. 

Essington, Thomas, Lisle, February 25, 1865. 

Ebberly, John B., Lisle, February 24, 1865. 

Flisher, John, Downer's Grove, March 1, 1865. 

Getsh, Anton, Naperville, February 25, 1865. 

Grass, Frederick, Naperville, February 25, 1865. 

Gushart, David, Naperville, February 25, 1865. 

Good, Robert G., Lisle, February 25, 1865; mus- 
tered out May 13, 1865. 

Grassley, Charles, Lisle, February 25, 1865. 

Hintz, Frederick. Downer's Grove, February 24, 
1865. 

Hines, Frederick, Downer's Grove, February 25, 
1865. 

Hubbard, Charles H, Naperville, February 25, 
1865. 

Heim, Henry, Naperville, February 25, 1865. 

Holderer, Christian, Naperville, ..February 25, 
1865. 

Houser, Milton L., Lisle, February 25, 1865. 

Heittler, John, Lisle, February 25, 1865. 

Houser, William, Naperville, February 25, 1865. 

Hammer, Peter, Lisle, February 25, 1865. 

Hinderlong, Christian, Lisle, February 25, 1865. 

Kreyder, Charles, Downer's Grove, March 1, 
1865; mustered out as Corporal. 

Kochley, Joseph, Naperville, February 25, 1865. 

Kline, Jacob, Downer's Grove, February 25, 1865. 

Kreyder, John, Downer's Grove, February 24, 
1865. 

Kline, William, Lisle, February 25, 1865. 

Lent, Lawrence, Naperville, February 25, 1865; 
mustered out as Corporal. 

Lienbundguth, Michael, Downer's Grove, Febru- 
ary 24, 1865. 

Mattis, Sebastian, Naperville, February 25, 1865. 

Mattis, Joseph, Naperville, February 25, 1865. 

Maynard, Levi, Downer's Grove, February 24, 
1865. 

Mertz, Wellington, Downer's Grove, February 24, 
1865; mustered out May 26, 1865. 

Netzley, John W., Lisle, February 25, 1865. 

Oldfleld, Joshua, Downer's Grove, February 27, 
1865. 

Porter, Alva B., Downer's Grove, March 2, 1865. 

Peter or Petus, Frederick, Downer's Grove, March 
1, 1865. 

Riddler, William, Naperville, February 25, 1865. 

Rickert, Alexander M., Naperville, February 25, 
1865; mustered out September 16, 1865. 



Rickert, Lichard, Lisle, February 25, 1865; absent 
at muster out of regiment. 

Rehin, Andrew, Downer's Grove, February 24, 
1865. 

Smith, George, Jr., Downer's Grove, March 11, 
1865. 

Smith, Charles, Downer's Grove, March 2, 1865. 

Schmidt, Frederick, Naperville, February 25, 
1865. 

Stoner, Frank A., Naperville, February 25, 1865. 

Stover, Edmund, Lisle, February 22, 1865. 

Shaffer, Alfred, Lisle, February 25, 1865. 

Stroule, George, Lisle, February 25, 1865. 

Strauss, Albert, Lisle, February 25, 1865. 

Shephard, William, Downer's Grove, February 
25, 1865. 

Turner, George, Naperville, February 25, 1865. 

Ulrich, Henry, Naperville, March 1, 1865. 

Vogle, Nelson, Lisle, February 25, 1865. 

Wagner, Naperville, February 25, 1865. 

Wheatley, Frederick, Lisle, February 25, 1865. 

Whitney, William C, Lisle, February 25, 1865. 

Wetten, Valentine, Downer's Grove, February 25, 
1865. 

Vender, George, Lisle, February 25, 1865. 

Yund, Simon E., Naperville, March 1, 1865; mus- 
tered out August 25, 1865, as Musician. 

COMPANY E. 

PRIVATE. 

Kaley, Jefferson, Winfield, February 28, 1865. 

COMPANY F. 
PRIVATES. 

Cragg, Edward, Winfield, February 28, 1865. 

Cragg, George H, Winfield, February 25, 1865; 
mustered out May 12, 1865. 

Griswold, David M., Winfield, February 28, 1865; 
mustered out May 27, 1865. 

Misener, Merit, Winfield, February 26, 1865. 

COMPANY G. 

PBIVATE. 

Campbell, Garrett, Lisle, March 1, 1865. 
The date of the enlistment of each soldier is 
affixed to his name, and also of mustering out, 
when discharged before the term for which he 
enlisted. 

Cogswell's battery. 

West, Louis, Naperville, enlisted February 25; 
mustered in April 6, 1864; mustered out as Sergeant. 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



125 



PETTIT S BATTERY. 

Pettit's Battery had one man from Du Page 
County : 

Wesley, Christian, Milton, enlisted in 1862; served 
three years and eleven days; wounded. 

Barker's Dragoons had three men from Du 
Page County : 
Litchfield, Cyrenius W., York. 
Reihansperger, Lawrence, Winfield. 
Reiley, John, Winfield. 

FIRST ARTILLERY. 

The First Regiment of Light Artillery had 
three men from Du Page County enlisted in it : 

COMPANY D. 

Schuerman, Jacob, Naperville; mustered in July 
30; discharged September 20, 1861. 

COMPANY M. 

Andreuss, Charles B., York, enlisted and mustered 
in October 14, 1864; died at Camp Butler November 
20. 1864. 

Darst, Jonathan H., Winfield, enlisted and mus- 
tered in October 26, 1864. 

SECOND ARTILLERY. 

The Second Artillery had eighteen men from 
Du Page County : 

COMPANY I. 

Rich, Judson, Naperville, Second Lieutenant; pro- 
moted to Captain. 

Ward, George T., Naperville, First Lieutenant; 
date of rank December 9, 1864. 

Haight, Charles D., Naperville, Quartermaster 
Sergeant; promoted to Second Lieutenant. 

Stolp, Rufus, Naperville, enlisted October 25, 1861; 
re-enlisted as veteran; promoted to Sergeant. 

Stolp, Rufus S., Naperville, enlisted January 1, 
1864; mustered out as Sergeant. 

Black, Neal J., Naperville, enlisted December 12, 
1861; mustered out as Corporal. 

Blackstun, Henry, Naperville, enlisted December 
12. 1861. 

Potter, Robert K., Naperville, enlisted December 
12, 1861. 

COMPANY K. 

Pool, Francis K., Downer's Grove. 
Young, John, Downer's Grove; both enlisted and 
mustered in October 18, 1864, as recruits. 



COMPANY L. 

Gager, Charles M., Brush Hill. 

Coe, Samuel A., Downer's Grove; both enlisted 
February 15, and mustered in the 28th, 1862. 

Coffin, Menzo C, Downer's Grove. 

Fox, Herman M., Downer's Grove; both enlisted 
and mustered in October 18, 1864. 

Ireland, John, York, enlisted and mustered in Feb- 
ruary 28, 1862; discharged March 31, 1864, for dis- 
ability. 

Reynolds, Allen, Downer's Grove, enlisted and 
mustered in February 28, 1862 ; re-enlisted as 
veteran. 

Smith, Otis A., York, enlisted and mustered in 
February 28, 1862; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Buck, Thomas, Winfield, unassigned recruit; en- 
listed and mustered in October 25, 1864. 

SECOND CAVALRY REGIMENT. 

The Second Cavalry Regiment was mustered 
into service August 12, 1861, and mustered out 
of service at San Antonio, Texas, November 24, 
1865. It had one man from Du Page County. 

COMPANY M. 

Preston, Charles, Milton, enlisted June 1; mus- 
tered in October 16, 1864. 

THIRD CAVALRY REGIMENT. 

This regiment was organized at Camp Butler, 
111., in August, 1861, and mustered out at 
Springfield, October 13, 1865. It had four men 
from Du Page County. 

COMPANY H. 

Hubbard, William, enlisted February 25; mus- 
tered in the 27th, 1865; promoted to Sergeant. 

Fischer, James H, Winfield, enlisted February 
28; mustered in March 1, 1865. 

COMPANY I. 

Backus, Myron, Addison, enlisted and mustered in 
February 28, 1865. 

COMPANY K. 

Milner, Henry O, York, enlisted and mustered in 
March 7, 1865. 

FOURTH CAVALRY REGIMENT. 

This regiment was mustered into service at 
Ottawa August 6, 1861, and mustered out in 



126 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



November, 1864. It had two men from Du 
Page County. 

COMPANY C. 

Avery, John, Milton, enlisted August 24, 1861; 
mustered out November 3, 1864, as Sergeant. 

Avery, Prank H., Milton, enlisted August 29, 1861; 
discharged April 20, 1862, for disability. 

SIXTH CAVALRY REGIMENT. 

This regiment was organized at Camp Butler, 
III., November 19, 1861, and mustered out at 
Selma, Ala., November 5, 1865. It had two 
men from Du Page County. 

COMPANY B. 

MeKinny, John H., Milton, enlisted and mustered 
in March 14, 1865. 

Rinehard, John, Milton, enlisted and mustered in 
March 21, 1865. 

EIGHTH CAVALRY REGIMENT. 

The Eighth Cavalry Regiment was organ- 
ized at St. Charles, 111., in September, 1861, by 
Col. Farnsworth, and mustered in the 18th. In 
October it moved to Washington, and in De- 
cember, to Alexandria, Va. The following 
March, it joined Gen. Sumner's division in his 
advance on Manassas, after which it guarded 
the Rappahannock till May. On the 4th, it 
moved to Williamsburg under command of Gen. 
Stoneham. June 26, it held '.he enemy under 
Jackson in check at Mechauicsville, after which 
battle a change of base was made by the Union 
forces, in accomplishing which the Eighth pro- 
tected the rear of the army by successful skir- 
mishes with the enemy. At Malvern Hill, it 
led the attack which was made on that place. 
August 30, 1862. it embarked at Yorktowu and 
landed at Alexandria the 1st of September, 
from which place it took the offensive and capt- 
ured 220 prisoners, two guns and the colors of 
the Twelfth Virginia Regiment. 

It was next engaged at Antietam, and next 
at Martinsburg, after which it led the advance 
of the Army of the Potomac almost constantly, 
skirmishing with the enemy, till it reached Fal- 



mouth November 23, 1862, after which it was 
on picket duty during the active operations 
that immediately followed. 

The next year, 1863, its earnest work was 
redoubled, and the actions in which it was 
engaged may be enumerated as follows : Sul- 
phur Springs, April 14 ; battle near Warrenton, 
the 17th ; Rapidan, May 1 ; Northern Neck, the 
14th ; Borstly Ford, June 9 ; Upperville, the 
21st ; Fairville, Penn., the 30th ; Gettysburg, 
July 1. It claims the honor of tiring the first 
shot at this decisive battle ; Williamsport, Md., 
the 6th ; Boonsboro, the 8th ; Funkstowu, the 
10th ; Falling Waters, the 14th ; Chester Gap, 
the 21st ; Sandy Hook, the 21st ; near Cul- 
pepper, Va., August 1 ; Brady's Station, the 
4th ; a raid to Falmouth, the 30th ; Pony Moun- 
tain, September 13; Liberty Mills, the 21st; 
Brady's Station, October 11 ; Manassas, the 
loth ; Warrenton, the 30th ; Rexleysville, No- 
vember 8 ; Mitchell's, the 12th, and Ely's Ford, 
the 30th. 

During the war, the following is a summary 
of the results of their arms, from official rec- 
ords : 

Captured, wounded and killed of the enemy, 
3,946 ; slaves liberated, 3,000 ; horses killed or 
captured, 4,110 ; mules killed or captured, 661 ; 
sheep killed or captured, 1,400 ; cattle killed or 
captured, 2,200 ; wagons captured, 280 ; smug- 
gling crafts destroyed, 208 ; 10 tons of ammu- 
nition ; 7 tons of leather, and 16 tons of pork 
captured ; 7 colors and 6 guns taken, added to 
which were cereals and small arms, valued at 
$2,000,000. These men were among the best 
soldiers in the war, whose bodies were hardened 
into clear muscle and bone, by their unceasing 
activity, made effective by the indomitable 
courage that held their uplifted arms to the 
service. 

This regiment was mustered out at Benton 
Barracks, Mo., July 17, 1865, and ordered to 
Chicago, where its remnant, less than one-third 
of its original number, received its final pay- 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



127 



ment and discharge. It had 197 men from Du 
Page Count}' in its ranks. 

MAJORS. 

Kelley, ElishaS., Milton; date of rank December 5, 
1862; resigned May 23, 1863. 

CHAPLAINS. 

Matlock, Lucius C, Wheaton; date of rank Octo- 
ber 8, 1861 ; mustered out August 25, 1862. 

NON-COMMISSIONED STAFF. 

CHIEF BUGLERS. 

Bartholomew, Oeorge W., Winfield; re-enlisted 
as veteran January 1, 1864. 

VETERAN NON-COMMISSIONED STAFF. 

QUARTEBMARTBK SERGEANT. 

Gates, Robert W., Bloomingdale; enlisted Janu- 
ary 1, 1864; promoted to Regimental Quartermaster. 

COMPANY A. 

Emery, James EL. Wheaton; enlisted September 
8, 1861; discharged April 24, 1862. 

COMPANY D. 

CAPTAINS. 

Gerhart, Jacob S., Bloomingdale; date of rank Sep- 
tember 18, 1861 ; resigned July 28, 1862. 

SECOND LIEUTENANTS. 

Verbeck, Carlos H., Bloomingdale; date of rank 
September 18, 1861; promoted to First Lieutenant; 
term expired February 1, 1865. 

Dunning, Andrew, Addison; date of rank March 3, 
1865; promoted to First Lieutenant; mustered out 
July 17, 1865. 

6EKOEANT8. 

Wallis, George, Bloomingdale; enlisted August 20, 
1861; discharged February 27, 1862, for disability. 

Clark, Charles L., Bloomingdale; enlisted Septem- 
ber 4, 1861 ; re-enlisted as veteran. 

COBPOHALS. 

Dunning, Andrew, Addison; enlisted August 58, 
1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Farr, Asa W., Bloomingdale; enlisted August 28, 
1861; mustered out September 28, 1864, as Sergeant. 

Coe, Curtiss H.. Bloomingdale; enlisted August 
20, 1861; died at Alexandria, Va., May, 1862. 

Durland, Garrett P., Bloomingdale; enlisted Au- 
gust 28, 1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

PRIVATES. 

Avery, Daniel J., Wayne, September 9, 1861: 
transferred to Company M. 



Ackley, John W., Bloomingdale, September 2, 
1861; re-enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864; mus- 
tered out as Corporal. 

Asendorf, Albert, Addison, September 12; mus- 
tered out September 28, 1864. 

Bunnell, Marcus, Bloomingdale, September 9, 
1861 ; re-entisted as veteran November 30, 1863 
mustered out as Corporal. 

Baltz, William, Bloomingdale, August 24, 1861 
transferred to Company M. 

Churchill, Amos, Milton, August 30, 1861 ; trans 
ferred to Company M. 

Clark, Morgan L., Bloomingdale, September 5 
1861; discharged in 1862; disability. 

Cheesman, George B., Addison, September 17, 
1861. 

Chapman, Thomas, Bloomingdale, August 20 
1861; discharged February, 1862; disability. 

Douglass, James, Bloomingdale, August 20, 1861 
re-enlisted as veteran November 30, 1863; mustered 
out as Wagoner. 

Deibert, Jacob, Bloomingdale, September 4, 1861 
mustered out September 28, 1864. 

Driscoll, Obadiah, Wayne, September 9, 1861 
discharged July 31, 1862; disability. 

Eggleston,' Surrial G., Addison, September 14 
1861; discharged March 19, 1863; wounds. 

Ehle, Austin J., Bloomingdale, August 30, 1861 
mustered out September 28, 1864. 

Ehle, John H., Bloomingdale, September 16, 1861 
died at Alexandria. Va., April, 1862. 

Eggist, Christopher, Bloomingdale, September 16 
1861 ; transferred to Company M. 

Fink, Barney H., Addison, September 4, 1861 
discharged November 12, 1862; disability. 

Fournier, Euseba, Bloomingdale, September 5, 
1861; re-enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864; mus- 
tered out as Corporal. 

Gannon, Thomas, Bloomingdale, September 3, 
1861 ; re-enlisted as veteran November 30, 1863; 
mustered out as Corporal. 

Gerhardt, Livingston E., Bloomingdale, Septem- 
ber 3, 1861 ; prisoner of war, reported dead, dropped 
from rolls. 

Goodwin, William W., Bloomingdale, August 30, 
1861; discharged November 26, 1862; disability. 

Giedman, Henry, Addison, August 28, 1861 ; mus- 
tered out September 28, 1864, as Corporal. 

Hackendorf, Henry, Bloomingdale. August 28, 
1861; discharged February 4, 1863; disability. 

Kollinan, Henry, Bloomingdale, September 7, 
1861 ; transferred to Company M. 



128 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Kohn, Frederick, Bloomingdale, September 17, 
1861 ; transferred to Company M. 

Landon, Allen S., Bloomingdale, August 20, 1861; 
mustered out September 28, 1864. 

Landon, Charles, Bloomingdale, August 30, 1861; 
re-enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864; mustered out 
as Corporal. 

Laning, Dedrick, York, September 17, 1861; re- 
enlisted as veteran December 20, 1863; mustered out 
as Saddler. 

Muzzy, Emeric O., Bloomingdale, September 17, 
1861; died at Alexandria, Va., February, 1862. 

Meachem, Sylvester, Bloomingdale, September 17, 
1861 ; mustered out September 28, 1865. 

Mund, Dedrick, York, September 9, 1861 ; died at 
Andersonville Prison September 6, 1864 ; number of 
grave, 7,989. 

Mcintosh. Hugh, Bloomingdale, September 17, 
1861 ; re-enlisted as a veteran November 30, 1863 ; 
mustered out as Corporal. 

Nash, DeWitt, Bloomingdale, September 7, 1861; 
mustered out September 28, 1864. 

Northrup, Albert, Bloomingdale, September 4 ; 
mustered out as Corporal. 

Noon, John, Bloomingdale, September 9, 1861 ; 
re-enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864; mustered out 
as Sergeant. 

Pierce, William D., Bloomingdale, August 20, 
1861 ; transferred to Company H. 

Pflarger, August, Bloomingdale, September 2, 
1861 ; re-enlisted as veteran November 30, 1863 ; 
mustered out as Sergeant. 

Rickert, Jacob D., Bloomingdale, August 20, 1861; 
mustered out May 20, 1862, prisoner of war. 

Rave, William D.. Bloomingdale, September 9, 
1861 ; discharged in 1862. 

Rode, Ernst, York, September 9, 1861 ; discharged 
May, 1862, disability. 

Sedgwick, Estus P., Bloomingdale, September 2, 
1861; died at Alexandria, Va., March, 1862. 

Segus, Henry, Bloomingdale, September 5, 1861; 
killed at Culpepper, Va., August, 1863. 

Teimer, Herman, Addison, September 7, 1861; 
discharged July 31, 1862, disability. 

Thorne, Alexander P., Wayne, September 16, 
1861; mustered out September 28, 1864. 

Volke, John, Addison, September 5, 1861; died at 
Washington, D. C, October 26, 1862. 

Weaber, Benjamin F., Bloomingdale, Septem- 
ber 5, 1861; killed near Boonesboro, Md., July 8, 
1863. 

Weaber, William, Bloomingdale, September 12, 
1861 ; discharged November 26, 1862, disability. 



Wilk, Henry, Bloomingdale, September 9, 1861; 
re-enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864. 

Wedmeir, Henry, Bloomingdale, September 4, 
1861; re-eniisted as veteran November 30, 1863. 

Woodworth, Henry, Wayne, September 16, 1861; 
re-enlisted as veteran. 

Way, Edmund, Bloomingdale, August 25, 1861; 
transferred to Company M. 

Wright, Sylvester, Bloomingdale, September 17; 
mustered out September 28, 1864. 

Zooh, Frederick, Bloomingdale, September 7, 
1861; died at Baltimore Cross Roads, Va., in 1862. 

VETERANB. 

Bye, William, Bloomingdale, November 30, 1863; 
mustered out as Sergeant. 

Clarke, Charles S., Bloomingdale, January 1, 1864; 
mustered out as Sergeant. 

Dunning, Andrew, Addison, January 1, 1864; pro- 
moted First Lieutenant. 

Durland, Garrett B., Bloomingdale, January 1, 
1864; mustered out as Sergeant. 

Duneka, Henry, Bloomingdale, Dec. 20, 1863. 

Fehrman, Lewis, Bloomingdale, December 20, 
1863; mustered out as Corporal. 

Fehrman, August, Addison, January 1, 1864; ab- 
sent, sick, at mustering out of regiment. 

Rave, August, Bloomingdale, January 1, 1864. 

RECRUITS. 

B W. , Bloomingdale, October 13, 1863. 

Brandt, , Bloomingdale, January 20, 1863; 

discharged January 10, 1865; disability. 

Clark, Morgan L., Bloomingdale, February 3, 
1864. 

Dunning, Samuel N, Addison, February 20. 

Elbert, William, Addison, October 8, 1864. 

Miner, William, Bloomingdale, October 14. 

Reiuhardt, Henry, Addison, October 8, 1864. 

COMPANY E. 

CAPTAINS. 

Kelly, Elisha 8., Milton, date of rank September 
18, 1861 ; promoted Major. 

Jones, Marcellus E., Wheaton, date of rank Oc- 
tober 10, 1864; promoted from Sergeant to Second 
Lieutenant, then First Lieutenant; mustered out 
July 17, 1865. 

Buck, Daniel N., Naperville, date of rank De- 
cember 5, 1862; promoted from First Sergeant to 
First Lieutenant; term expired October 10, 1864. 

FIRST LIEUTENANTS. 

Flagg, Benjamin L., Milton, date of rank Sep- 
tember 18, 1861; resigned July 15, 1862. 



HISTORY OP DU PAGE COUNTY. 



129 



Riddler, Alexander McS. S., date of rank Octo- 
ber 10, 1864; promoted from Corporal to Second 
Lieutenant; mustered out July 17, 1865. 

BECOND LIEUTENANTS. 

Taylor, Woodbury M., Milton, date of rank Sep- 
tember 18, 1861; promoted First Lieutenant; pro- 
moted second time Captain Company L by Presi- 
dent April 11, 1864. 

Wbitaker, Owen, Milton, date of rank December 
8, 1864; promoted from Corporal; resigned June 9, 
1865. 

"Wayne, Edward, Naperville, date of rank June 20, 
1865; mustered out as Sergeant July 17, 1865. 

QUARTERMASTER SERGEANT. 

Foster, George, Milton, enlisted September 5, 
1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

SERGEANTS. 

Smith, Samuel W., Naperville, enlisted Septem- 
ber 10, 1861; promoted Sergeant Major. 

Hines, Thomas S., Naperville, enlisted Septem- 
ber 10, 1861; mustered out September 28, 1864; 
term expired. 

Mott, Meritt, Milton, enlisted September 5, 1861; 
discharged April 13, 1862; disability. 

CORPORALS. 

Harnes, Benjamin F., Naperville, enlisted Sep- 
tember 10, 1861; discharged February 15, 1863 as 
Sergeant; wounds. 

Oberhallsen, Samuel, Naperville, enlisted Septem- 
ber 10, 1861; discharged November 23, 1862; disa- 
bility. 

Fosha, George, Naperville, enlisted September 10, 
1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Crosby, Frank, Milton, enlisted September 5, 
1861; discharged October 8, 1864; term expired. 

Ackley, Frank M., Milton, enlisted September 5, 
1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

McNorth, George S., Winfield, enlisted Septem- 
ber 5, 1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

BUGLER. 

Lund, Henry, Milton, enlisted September 5, 1861; 
promoted Chief Bugler. 

FARRIER. 

Bond, Samuel, Naperville, enlisted September 13, 
1861 ; re-enlisted as veteran. 

PRIVATES. 

Benjamin, Henry H., Lisle, September 10, 1861; 
mustered out September 28, 1864; term expired. 

Brooks, Edwin H, Milton, September 10, 1861; 
re-enlisted as veteran; mustered out as Corporal. 



Bartholomew, George W., Warren ville, Septem- 
ber 10; promoted Chief Bugler. 

Burnham, Remembrace, Bloomingdale, Septem- 
ber 5, 1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Cooley, Herbert, Wheaton, September 5. 1861; 
re-enlisted as veteran; mustered out as Sergeant. 

Corbet, Clark S., Milton, September 5, 1861; dis- 
charged November 15, 1862; disability. 

Chadwiek, William H, Milton, September 5, 
1861; re-enlisted as veteran; mustered out as Corp- 
oral. 

Churchill, William H, York. September 5, 1861; 
mustered out September 28, 1864. 

Ditzler, Eli H, Naperville, September 10, 1861, 
mustered out September 28, 1864. 

Davis, Samuel, Milton, September 5, 1861; mus- 
tered out September 28, 1864. 

Dense, Darwin, Danby, September 14, 1861; re- 
enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864; mustered out 
as Sergeant. 

Dissinger, Aaron, Naperville, September 17, 1861 ; 
discharged April 21, 1862; disability. 

Dodge, Horace O., Milton; September 18, 1861; 
mustered out September 28, 1864; term expired. 

Foster, James, Winfield, September 5, 1861; dis- 
charged July 25, 1863. 

Franks, Benjamin, Naperville. September 14, 
1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Flagg, Sewell, Milton, September 14, 1861; Ser- 
geant; killed near Manassas, Va., October 15, 1863. 

Farrer, Judson, Downer's Grove, September 17, 
1861; died at Alexandria, Va., June 18, 1863; 
wounds. 

Guio, Augustus, Milton, September 5, 1861; dis- 
charged January 8, 1863; disability. 

Jacob, Gates, Downer's Grove, September 18, 
1861; discharged November 28, 1862; disability. 

Heim. George, Lisle, September 17; re-enlisted as 
veteran January 1, 1864; mustered out as Sergeant. 

Hardy, Edgar A., Milton, September 5, 1861; re- 
enlisted as veteran January 1. 1864; mustered out as 
Sergeant. 

Hart, Horace, Milton, September 5, 1861; re 
enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864. 

Hymes, Jacob, Naperville, September 5, 1861 ; 
discharged April 16, 1862; disability. 

Hale, James O., Winfield, September 5, 1861; re- 
enlisted as veteran November 30, 1863; mustered out 
as Corporal. 

Hughes, Morgan, Naperville, September 17, 1861 ; 
re-enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864; mustered out 
as Bugler. 



130 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Hector, Frank, Milton, September 13, 1861; trans- 
ferred to Company A. 

Howell, Charles, Downer's Grove, September 18, 
1861; mustered out September 28, 1864, as Cor- 
poral. 

Havens, John W., Downer's Grove, September 
18, 1861; re-enlisted as veteran; promoted Corporal; 
absent, sick, at muster out of regiment. 

Hyde, James, Naperville, September 17, 1861; re- 
enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864. 

Jewell, Solomon W., Milton, September 5, 1861; 
discharged November 25, 1862; wounds. 

Jones, William, Milton, September 5, 1861; dis- 
charged January 23, 1863, as Sergeant; wounds. 

Jepperson, Herman K., Warrenville, September 
18, 1861; re-enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864; 
died of starvation February 21, 1865, in rebel hospi- 
tal at Danville, Va. 

Kockley, Jacob, Naperville, September 18, 1861 ; 
re-enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864; died at 
Washington, D. C, August 10, 1864; wounds. 

Kelly, Benton J., Milton, September 17; mus- 
tered out September 28, 1864. 

Kinzie, AbramA., Naperville, September 17, 1861; 
re-enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864. 

Loser, William, Naperville, September 17, 1861; 
re-enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864. 

Loser, John, Naperville, September 17, 1861; re- 
enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864; mustered out as 
Corporal. 

Mott, Gilbert, Milton, September 5, 1861; re-en- 
listed as veteran January 1, 1864. 

Meachem, Frank, Milton, September 5, 1861; dis- 
charged December 5, 1862. 

Mertz, Franklin B., Naperville, September 10, 
1861; mustered out September 28, 1864; term ex- 
pired. 

Mills, George A., Milton, September 14, 1861; 
died at Alexandria, Va., February 22, 1862. 

McCauley, Augustus, Naperville, September 17, 
1861; mustered out September 28, 1864. 

McMillan, Daniel. Downer's Grove, September 18, 
1861; discharged September 22, 1862; disability. 

Plumer, Benjamin, York, September 18, 1861; 
promoted Regimental Commissary Sergeant. 

Poison, Emerick, Milton, September 14, 1861; dis- 
charged February 28, 1863; disability. 

Potter, Nelson A., Milton, September 5, 1861; 
transferred to Company A. 

Plant, Roswell. Naperville, September 14; re-en- 
listed as veteran January 1, 1864. 

Pinches, William, Downer's Grove; mustered out 
September 28, 1864, as Corporal. 



Perry, John, Downer's Grove, September 17, 1861 
discharged March 21, 1864. 

Persem, George, Naperville, September 17, 1861 
killed Funkstown, Md., July 10, 1863. 

Ringman, George, Milton, September 5, 1861 
killed Morton's Ford, Va., October 11, 1863. 

Rogers, Francis A., Downer's Grove, September 
18, 1861; mustered out September 28, 1864; term ex- 
pired. 

Slyter, Charles, Milton, September 5, 1861; died 
at Alexandria, Va., July 1, 1863; wounds. 

Strouse, Lewis, Lisle, September 10, 1861; re-en- 
listed as veteran January 1, 1861; mustered out as 
Corporal. 

Stoner, John, Naperville, September 17, 1861; re- 
enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864. 

Snyder, Daniel, Lisle, September 14, 1861 ; killed 
South Mountain, Md., September 14, 1862. 

Shaeffer, Levi S., Naperville, September 18, 1861; 
discharged October 8, 1864, as Sergeant. 

Stevens, Abraham, Warrenville, September 18, 
1861; discharged February 13, 1863; disability. 

Schuster, Franklin, Milton, September 18, 1861; 
re-enlisted as veteran. 

Tobias, William J., Naperville, September 10, 
1861; re-enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864; died at 
Naperville, 111., May 12, 1864. 

Wheeler, Allen, Downer's Grove, September 18, 
1861 

Wentworth, Winfleld, September 5, 1861. 

Weidman, Curtis S., Milton, September 5, 1861; 
mustered out Septemher 28, 1864. 

Wayne, Edward, Naperville, September 17, 1861; 
re-enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864; mustered out 
as First Sergeant; commissionel Second Lieutenant, 
but not mustered. 

Whitaker, Owen, Miltou, November 30. 1863; pro- 
moted Sergeant, then Second Lieutenant. 

RECHU1TS. 

Ashley, Benedict, Downer's Grove, October 18, 
1864. 

Burnham, Oscar D., Naperville, January 10, 1864, 
veteran. 

Britegan, William, Naperville, February 23, 1864; 
absent, sick, at mustering out of regiment. 

Bennett, William, Milton, September 27, 1864. 

Bunn, Henry, Downer's Grove, October 18, 1864. 

Culver, Charles S., Warrenville, Dec. 24, 1864. 

Campbell, John, Naperville, January 1, 1864; died 
at Camp Relief, D. C, July 6, 1864. 

Desenbrock, Henry, Naperville, December 20, 
1863, mustered out; Blacksmith. 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



131 



Dixon, Charles G, Downer's Grove, October 18, 
1864. 

Freets, William, Milton, September 9, 1861; dis- 
charged September 18, 1861. 

Graham, James, Naperville, January 10, 1864. 

Gerberick, Levi, Naperville, February 23, 1864. 

Gleason, Watson W., Downer's Grove, October 
18, 1864. 

Hudson, William, Warrenville, Deeember 22, 
1863; died in rebel prison at Richmond, Va. 

Johnson, Oscar, Milton, September 14, 1861, dis- 
charged September 20, 1861. 

Kribill, John, Naperville, December 20, 1863. 

Murray, John, Naperville, January 10, 1864. 

Mertz, Owen. Lisle, February 19, 1864. 

Neff, Joseph, Naperville, January 4, 1864; killed 
at Monocacy, Md., July 30, 1864. 

Robinson, Ashael F., Milton, August 11, 1862; 
re-enlisted as veteran. 

Robinson, Daniel F., Milton. August 11, 1862; re- 
enlisted as veteran. 

Strieker. David, Naperville, December 21, 1863. 

Schaftmetzle, Chas., Naperville, January 1, 1864. 

Statt, Charles, Downer's Grove, October 18; 1864. 

Wilson, Thomas, Wheaton, February 5, 1864. 

Ward, James A., Warrenville, January 2, 1864. 

Winderburg, Louis, Naperville, Dec. 20, 1863. 

Ward, Charles H.. Warrenville, December 24, 
1863; died in District of Columbia July 23, 1864; 
wounds. 

COMPANY F. 



ntlVATffi 



Brown, James, Du Page County, Sept. 4, 1861; 
discharged Sept. 19, 1862; accidental wounds. 

Hawley, Oliver, Du Page County, August 30, 
1861; re-enlisted as veteran January 1, 1864; Ser- 
geant; discharged July 1, 1865. 

NINTH CAVALRY REGIMENT. 

The Ninth Cavalry Regiment was organized 
at Chicago in November, 1861, and mustered 
out at Salrna, Ala., October 1, 1865. It had 
three men from Du Page County. 

COMPANY D. 

Toune, Dedrick, Addison, enlisted September 10; 
mustered in the 21st, 1861. 

COMPANY K. 

Bostwick, Henry O, Du Page County, enlisted 
September 10, 1861 ; discharged September 30, 1862, 
as Sergeant. 



Woodworth, Frank, Bloomingdale, Corporal; en- 
listed September 5, and mustered in October 26. 
1861 ; re-enlisted as veteran. 

TWELFTH CAVALRY. 

After its organization in December, 1861, it 
was promptly sent to Virginia, where, at Win- 
chester, its earnest work began in September, 
1862. It was at Harper's Ferry when sur- 
rounded by the rebels, and saved itself from 
capture by cutting its way through their lines, 
escaping into Pennsylvania. It was then joined 
with the Potomac Army, and advanced to Dum- 
fries, Va., where it remained till March, 1863, 
holding the place against the rebel Gen. Stuart. 
It next took part in the famous Stonewall raid, 
a detachment of which, under Col. Davis, 
passed the rear of Lee's army within two miles 
of Richmond. In June, 1S63, it was attached 
to the First Division Army Corps, and was in 
active service through the sanguinary campaign 
that followed. It next returned to Chicago and 
recruited to its maximum, when it returned to 
the front, arriving at New Orleans April 1, 1864, 
where it was engaged in picket duty and raid- 
ing till the war was over. It had forty-eight 
men from Du Page County in its ranks. 

COMPANY A. 

Drury, John, Naperville, enlisted January 22, 
1862; died at Camp Butler the following March. 

Muck, Henry, Naperville, enlisted January 9, 
1862, re-enlisted at veteran. 

COMPANY B. 

Miskosaki, Egnes, Naperville; enlisted January 6, 
1862; re-enlisted as veteran. 

COMPANY C. 

CAPTAIN. 

Bronson, Stephen, Wheaton, enlisted and mus- 
tered in February 28, 1862; promoted Major. 

SFCOND LIEUTENANT. 

Ward, George F., Wheaton, enlisted November 
17, 1862; promoted to First Lieutenant. 

Mills, Alexander, First Sergeant, Milton, enlisted 
December 10, 1861; promoted Second Lieutenant 
March 15, 1863; resigued, January 2, 1864. 



132 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Chadwick, Edwin, Corporal, Milton, enlisted Oc- 
tober 31, 1861; re-enlisted us veteran. 

Paine, Robert E., Milton, enlisted November 30, 
1861. 

Finch, Charles L., Milton, Bugler, enlisted Janu- 
ary 10, 1862; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Standish, Stephen, Lisle, Sergeant, enlisted Octo- 
ber 1, 1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Stearns, Benjamin, Winfield, Blacksmith, enlisted 
December 16, 1861. 

Atkinson, Robert, Wayne, Saddler, enlisted Octo- 
ber 13, 1861. 

Cheeney, E. M., Milton, Wagoner, enlisted No- 
vember 3, 1861; discharged October 1, 1862. 

Ackerman, J. D., Milton, enlisted December 27, 
1861. 

Ackerman, S. W., Babcock's Grove, enlisted De- 
cember 24, 1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Bedford, Franklin, enlisted December 14, 1861; 
promoted to Hospital Steward. 

Bronson, Charles, Milton, enlisted December 31, 
1861; discharged for disability. 

Burns, Patrick, Milton, enlisted December 10, 
1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Butterfield, Theodore, Milton, enlisted December 
10, 1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Cooper, Benjamin, Naperville, unassigned re- 
cruit, enlisted December 29, 1863. 

Ensworth, Edgar, Milton, enlisted January 1, 
1862. 

Finch, Elisha W., Milton, enlisted December 17, 
1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Hickey, Ball, Milton, enlisted December 12, 1861; 
discharged October 1, 1862. 

Higgins, Owen, Wayne, enlisted December 13, 
1861; became prisoner of war and was discharged. 

Gorow, John L., Milton, enlisted December 10, 
1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Mason, E. H, Milton, enlisted December 14, 1861; 
re-enlisted as veteran. 

Moon, G. W., Milton, enlisted January 1, 1862; 
re-enlisted as veteran. 

Mott, Willard, Wheaton, enlisted December 1, 
1861; discharged May 14, 1862. 

Riley, John, Wayne, enlisted February 4, 1862; 
re-enlisted as veteran. 

Ushner, Ferdinand, Milton, enlisted January 1, 
1862; killed at Gettysburg July 1, 1863. 

Vlntom, William, Cottage Hill, enlisted Febru- 
21, 1862; discharged. 

Wakefield, James B., Wayne, enlisted January 
16, 1862; re-enlisted as veteran. 



Welch, John, Winfield, enlisted November 15, 
1862; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Wentworth, C. E. H., Wheaton, enlisted February 
1, 1862; promoted to Hospital Steward. 

Wright, William, Milton, enlisted December 1, 
1861; discharged March 1, 1863. 

Ferich, Charles L., Naperville, enlisted as veteran 
March 1, 1864. 

Ferish, Elisha W., Milton, enlisted February 28, 
1864, as veteran. 

The two above mustered in February 29, 1864, as 
veterans. 

Woods, William, Wheaton, enlisted as recruit. 

COMPANY D. 

Brown, Henry D., Wayne, enlisted February 10, 
1862; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Keith, Chas., Wayne, enlisted December 27, 1861. 

Langly, F. M., Wayne, enlisted February 15, 1862; 
re-enlisted as veteran. 

Ogden, Alonzo, Wayne, enlisted February 24, 
1861; discharged June, 1863. 

Panter, Allen, Wayne, enlisted February 24, 1861. 

Panter, J. C, Wayne, enlisted February 26, 1861. 

Rabus, Lewis, Wayne, enlisted March 2, 1861; 
discharged September 4, 1863. 

COMPANY M. 

McGinty, Joseph, York, enlisted December 14, 
1863; transferred to Company H as consolidated. 

THIRTEENTH CAVALRY. 

The Thirteenth Cavalry was organized at 
Camp Douglas December, 1861, and mustered 
out at Springfield August 31, 1865. It had 
eight men from Du Page County. 

COMPANY A. 

Becker, Friederick, Addison, enlisted September 
19, mustered in December 31, 1861. 

Jenson, Franz Z. F. W., Downer's Grove, enlisted 
September 28, mustered in December 31, 1861. 

COMPANY B. 

Kretzer, Ferdinand, Naperville, discharged Octo- 
ber 2, 1862, for disability. 

COMPANY C. 

Sommer, Wilheim, Addison, enlisted October 20, 
mustered in December 31, 1861. 

Schroeder, Henry Carl, York, enlisted October21, 
mustered in December 31, 1861. 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



133 



COMPANY E. 

Waskon, William, Addison, enlisted October 23; 
discharged 1862. 

COMPANY H. 

Blackeman, Reuben. 

Eyor, Peter, both of Naperville, and enlisted De- 
cember 1; mustered in the 31st, 1864. 

FIFTEENTH CAVALRY. 

The companies of which this regiment was 
composed were enlisted in the autumn of 1861. 
Company I was mustered into the service Sep- 
tember 23, 1861, but the first orders organizing 
the regiment bears date of Springfield, Decem- 
ber 25, 1862. The term of enlistment of the 
men expired January 1, 1865, when this regi- 
ment was consolidated with the Tenth, and the 
re-enlisted men of both regiments made twelve 
companies. Thirteen men from Du Page 
County were in its ranks. 

COMPANY H. 

Bushell. Joseph, Naperville, Corporal. 

Warner, William, Naperville, Corporal. 

Monk, Joseph, Naperville, Corporal. 

Cofiman, Adam G., Wayne. 

Canlon, Arnold, Wayne. 

Rinehart, Charles C, Winfield. 

AH the above enlisted August 7, 1861. 

COMPANY I. 

Hagadon, George W., Wheaton, Corporal, en- 
listed August 2, 1861 ; discharged May 24, 1863, for 
disability. 

Mowry, Allen, Turner Junction. Corporal; re-en- 
listed as veteran. 

Rathborn, Joshua, Danby, enlisted August 2, 
1861, mustered out August 24. 1864. 

Tucker, Lawrence S., Turner Junction, enlisted 
August 2, 1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

COMPANY K. 

Larkin, Nathan, Wayne, Corporal, enlisted Au- 
gust 12, 1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

Balch, Edwin E., Naperville, enlisted August 17, 
1861; re-enlisted as veteran. 

COMPANY h. 

Barr, John C, Du Page County, Sergeant, en- 
listed December 2, 1861; mustered in January 1, 



1862. Private in detached service, missing since the 
massacre of Fort Pillow. 

SEVENTEENTH CAVALRY. 

The Seventeenth Cavalry Regiment was or- 
ganized by John F. Farnsworth under order 
issued from the War Department August 12, 

1863. Eight companies were mustered into 
service January 22, 1864. Four more com- 
panies were mustered in by the 24th of Febru- 
ary, and the regiment was complete. The fol- 
lowing May, on the 3d, it moved to report to 
Gen. Rosecrans, who was then commander of 
the Department of the Missouri. In June, its 
First and Second Battalions were ordered to the 
North Missouri District, while the Third re- 
mained at Alton, 111., which had been head- 
quarters up to this time for the whole regi- 
ment. Companies C and D, of this battalion 
took part in the defense of Jefferson City, Mo., 
against Price's arm}-. The Second Battalion 
were engaged in patroling the country and de- 
feuding the railroads against rebel guerrillas, 
etc. The Third Battalion left Alton in Septem- 
ber, 1864, passing through St. Louis in the 
direction of Rolla to prevent the army of Price 
from cutting off its communication with St. 
Louis. More active work was now open for 
this regiment. Iu connection with other regi- 
ments, it was placed under command of Gen. 
Sanborn, and the Seventeenth took part in the 
attack on Gen. Price at Booneville. On the 22d 
of October, 1864, at Independence, Mo., it dis- 
mounted, and with the Thirteenth Missouri 
gained the rear guard of the enemy and capt- 
ured their artillery. Two days after this, 
1,000 rebel prisoners were taken, among whom 
was the famous Gen. Marmaduke, just over the 
Kansas line. 

The Seventeenth, now with McNeil's brigade, 
pursued the defeated foe in the direction of 
Fort Scott, the rebels, still numerous and 
formidable, oft making bold stands and giving 
battle to their pursuers. They finally escaped 
into Arkansas, and the pursuing column re- 



134 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



turned to Springfield, Mo., after a flying cam- 
paign of forty-three days, in which 1,000 miles 
had been traveled, and many spirited skirmishes 
with the enemy encountered. It was mustered 
out in November and December at Fort Leav- 
enworth, Kan. It had sixty-one men from Du 
Page County in its ranks. 

MAJOR. 

Matlack, Lucius C, Wheaton, date of rank Jan- 
uary 23, 1864. 

ADJUTANT. 

Smith, Samuel W., Naperville; date of rank, No- 
vember 25, 1863. 

QUARTERMASTER. 

Horner, Benjamin F., Naperville; date of rank 
July 13, 1865. 

COMPANY H. 

CAPTAIN. 

Smith, Samuel W., Naperville; date of rank De- 
cember 9, 1864. 

FIRST LIEUTENANT. 

Laird, William J., Naperville; date of rank July 
14, 1865; promoted from Second Lieutenant. 

SECOND LIEUTENANT. 

McMillan, Alexander, Wheaton; date of rank 
July 14, 1865. 

QUARTERMASTER SERGEANT. 

Filler, Thomas, York; enlisted December 23, 1863. 

SERGEANTS. 

Oberholsen, Samuel, Naperville; enlisted January 
1, 1864; promoted to First Sergeant. 

Horner, Benjamin F., Naperville; enlisted Janu- 
ary 1, 1864; promoted to Regimental Quartermaster. 

CORPORALS. 

Money, Abram W., Bloomingdale, enlisted Janu- 
ary 1, 1864; mustered out as Sergeant. 

Porter, Frank H., Wheaton, enlisted December 3, 
1863; mustered out as Sergeant. 

Wells, Milton J., Wheaton, enlisted January 1, 
1864; promoted to Regimental Commissary Ser- 
geant. 

Good, Walter W., Naperville, enlisted January 1, 
1864; mustered out as Sergeant. 

Parsons, Peter, Naperville, enlisted December 25, 
1863; mustered out as Sergeant. 



Andrews, Dewey, Wheaton, enlisted December 
3, 1863; mustered out as Corporal. 



PRIVATES. 

Andrews, August, Winfield, enlisted December 
25, 1863; mustered out as Corporal. 

Blessman, Frederick, York, enlisted November 9, 
1863. 

Boltman, Frederick, Cottage Hill, enlisted No- 
vember 1, 1863. 

Barribal, Henry, Bloomingdale, enlisted January 
1, 1864. 

Bounear, Henry, Addison, enlisted December 15, 
1863. 

Benkert, Lawrence, Naperville, enlisted Decem- 
ber 25, 1863. 

Bond, Elijah, Bloomingdale, enlisted January 1, 
1864. 

Bond, Rosaloo, Naperville, enlisted January 1, 
1864; mustered out as Sergeant. 

Caulkins, Joshua, Naperville, enlisted December 
4, 1863. 

Dunn, Joseph, Downer's Grove, enlisted January 
4, 1864. 

Dissinger, David, Naperville, enlisted December 
25, 1864. 

Fry, William, Naperville, enlisted January 1, 

1864. 
Grambine, Solomon, Naperville, enlisted January 

1, 1864. 

Gebhart, Frederick, Wheaton, enlisted January 4, 
1864. 

Grant, Adelbert, York, enlisted November 10, 

1863. 

Guchart, Samuel, Naperville, enlisted December 
25, 1863. 

Heinburg, Charles, Addison, enlisted January 11, 
1864; died at Fort Scott, Kas., November 16, 1864. 

Hatch, Franklin, Bloomingdale, enlisted January 
1, 1865. 

Kiesling, Augustus, Addison, enlisted December 
23, 1863; mustered out as Corporal. 

Ketchum, Elias D., Naperville, enlisted January 
4, 1864. 

Lyon, Charles, Wheaton. enlisted December 29, 
1863; mustered out as Corporal. 

Lyman, John F., Wheaton, enlisted December 1, 
1863; drowned at Pleasant Hill, Mo., June 29, 1865. 

McMillan, Alexander, Wheaton, enlisted Novem- 
ber 1, 1863; promoted to Hospital Steward. 

McMasters, Frank. York Centre, enlisted Novem- 
ber 10, 1863. 

Morgan, Royal T., Wheaton, enlisted December 
1, 1863; mustered out as Corporal. 

Meacham, Henry, Naperville, enlisted January 1, 
1864; died at Sedalia, Mo., October 28, 1864. 




^/e^^^c. b&&c^2^ 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



137 



Metzler, Samuel, Winfield, enlisted January 4, 
1864. 

Meininghous. Louis, Bloomingdale, enlisted Jan- 
uary 4, 1864; mustered out as Corporal. 

Miner, Martin, York, enlisted January 1, 1864. 

Plummer, Benjamin, York, enlisted December 
23, 1863; promoted to Regimental Commissary 
Sergeant. 

Priess, Frederick, Wheaton, enlisted December 
15, 1863. 

Rohker, Henry, Naperville, enlisted January 4, 
1864. 

" Stoner, William, Cottage Hill, enlisted January 1, 
1864. 

Sperlon, John, Wheaton, enlisted December 1, 
1863. 

Schofield, Joseph E., Bloomingdale, enlisted Jan- 
uary 1, 1864. 

Scott, Samuel, Naperville, enlisted December 26, 
1863. 

Sininger, John, Babcock's Grove, enlisted De- 
cember 25, 1863. 

Turner, George J., Addison, enlisted January 4, 
1864. 

Votner, William, Wheaton, enlisted January 11, 
1864. 

Warneke, Frederick, Wheaton, enlisted November 
27, 1863. 

Warkle, Christopher, Naperville, enlisted Decem- 
ber 25, 1863. 

Warren, Martin J., Downer's Grove, enlisted Jan- 
uary 4, 1864. 

Detzler, William, Naperville, enlisted February 
27, 1864; drowned at Glasgow, Mo., August 15, 
1864. 

Daniels, John, Naperville, enlisted March 29, 
1864; died of wounds received in battle at Hunts- 
ville, Mo., July 24. 1864. 

Noddlehoffer, William, Naperville, enlisted March 
7. 1864. 

Reinhart, Frederick, Naperville, enlisted March 
7, 1864. 

Snibley, Henry C, Naperville, enlisted January 
30, 1864. 

RECRUITS FOR THE FIRST ARMY CORPS. 

Liusley, John C, York, enlisted February 7, mus- 
tered in the 20th, 1865; mustered out February 21, 
1866. 

Carroll, James L., York, enlisted February 13, 
mustered in the 25th, 1865; mustered out February 
13, 1866. 

Rathburn, Joshua, Milton, enlisted and mustered 
in March 2, 1865; mustered out March 2, 1866. 



The above assigned to Second Regiment U. S. 
Veteran Volunteers. 

Bexler, John, York. 

Needham, James, York. 

Both enlisted and mustered in February 17, 1865. 

Goble, Abraham E., York, enlisted and mustered 
in February 24, 1865; promoted Sergeant. 

The three above assigned to the Fourth Regiment 
U. S. Veteran Volunteers. 

Carroll, Edward. 

Felthousen, Jacob D. 

Gaskell, Sylvester H. 

Olson, Martin. 

Pomeroy, Winfield K. 

Thompson, John. 

The above six all from Milton; enlisted and mus- 
tered in March 10, 1865. 

Carpenter, James E., York. 

Kaenig, Adolph, Downer's Grove. 

Hengel, Mathias, Milton. 

Loveland, Henry, Milton. 

McGuire, Francis, Milton. 

The above two enlisted and mustered in March 23, 
1865. 

Cheney, William, Downer's Grove. 

Lutze, George D., Downer's Grove. 

The above two enlisted March 31, 1865, and as- 
signed to the Sixth Regiment U. S. Veteran Vol- 
unteers. 

Tebo, Caleb, York, enlisted and mustered in April 
10, 1865; promoted April 13, 1866, Sergeant. 

The names of Du Page Count}' soldiers are 
recorded in thirty-four regiments of infantry, 
ten regiments of cavalry and five regiments of 
artillery, as follows : 

INFANTRY REGIMENTS— numher of men. 

Seventh Illinois Infantry 24 

Tenth Illinois Infantry 1 

Twelfth Illinois Infantry 2 

Thirteenth Illinois Infantry 90 

Fifteenth Illinois Infantry 4 

Nineteenth Illinois Infantry 1 

Twentieth Illinois Infantry 5 

Twenty-third Illinois Infantry 15 

Thirty-third Illinois Infantry 4* 

Thirty-sixth Illinois Infantry 47 

Thirty-seventh Illinois Infantry 4 

Thirty-ninth Illinois Infantry 2 

Forty-second Illinois Infantry 7 

Forty-fourth Illinois Infantry 1 

Fifty-first Illinois Infantry 18 

II 



138 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Fifty-second Illinois Infantry 24 

Fifty-third Illinois Infantry 1 

Fifty-fourth Illinois Infantry 18 

Fifty -fifth Illinois Infantry 35 

Fifty-eighth Illinois Infantry 12 

Sixty-seventh Illinois Infantry 3 

Sixty-ninth Illinois Infantry 5 

Seventy-second Illinois Infantry 15 

Eighty-second Illinois Infantry 1 

Eighty-eighth Illinois Infantry 8 

Eighty-ninth Illinois Infantry 7 

Ninety-fifth Illinois Infantry 2 

One Hundreth Illinois Infantry 1 

One Hundred and Fifth Illinois Infantry. . . 398 

One Hundred and Twenty-seventh 4 

One Hundred and Thirty-second 15 

One Hundred and Forty -first 80 

One Hundred and Fifty-third 75 

One Hundred and Fifty-sixth 99 

Total 1066 

ARTILLERY— NUMBEE or MIM. 

Cogswell's Battery 1 

Petit's Battery 1 

Barker's Dragoons 3 

First Artillery 3 

Second Artillery 18 

Total 27 

CAVALRY — NUMBER OF MEN. 

Second Cavalry 1 

Third Cavalry 4 

Fourth Cavalry 2 

Sixth Cavalry 2 

Eighth Cavalry 197 

Ninth Cavalry 3 

Twelfth Cavalry 48 

Thirteenth Cavalry 8 



Fifteenth Cavalry 13 

Seventeenth Cavalry 61 

Total 339 

Recruits for First Army Corps had from Du 

Page County 20 

Grand total 1452 

It is to the credit of Du Page County that 
she not only contributed her quota to the war 
for the Union, but that she took official action 
to reward her soldiers, an historic voucher to 
which is here recorded in the following resolu- 
tions which were passed : 

Whereas, The President of the United States by 
his proclamation dated December 19, 1864, has called 
for 300,000 men for military service, and has ordered 
that the number not obtained by voluntary enlist- 
ments previous to the 15th day of next February, 
shall be filled by draft ; and 

Whereas, The County of Du Page has promptly 
filled all former calls for troops with volunteers, and 
now desires to retain its good name in the premises, 
and to do its full share in the great work of saving 
the Union, and the necessary power to act having 
been granted to the Board of Supervisors of said 
county by a recent act of the General Assembly, 
therefore, 

Resolved, That the Board of Supervisors of Du 
Page County hereby authorize the payment of 
|400 to each volunteer except commissioned officers, 
who may enlist and be mustered into the service of 
the United States for one year or more, and credited 
to said county under said call of December 19, 1864, 
said sum to be paid in county orders, bearing inter- 
est at 7 percent as follows: One order for $200 pay- 
able out of the bounty war fund of 1865, and one 
order for like amount to wit: $200 payable out of 
the bounty war fund of 1866. 




HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



139 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE FIRST ELECTION— COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT — THE COUNTY LINE SURVEYED — THE 
COUNTY DIVIDED INTO PRECINCTS — TOWNSH ITS ORGANIZED — LIST OF COUNTY AND 

TOWN OFFICERS— VALUATION OF TAXABLE PROPERTY— THE FIRST GRAND JURY 
* —PUBLIC SCHOOLS— THE OLD STAGE COACH— RAILROADS— REMOVAL OF 

THE COUNTY SEAT— THE COUNTY FAIR— GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY. 



TN a previous chapter the organization of Du 
J- Page County has been recorded, which was 
in February, 1839. The following May the 
first election took place for county officers, at 
the Pre-emption House in Naperville. There 
were then no voting precincts, and whoever 
wished a voice in the matter in question must 
go to Naperville to the vote. Stephen J. Scott, 
S. M. Skinner and L. G-. Butler had been au- 
thorized by the law to act as Judges of the 
first election. The officers elected at this time 
were only to serve till the 5th of the following- 
August, when a general election was to have 
place. Previous to this election orders were 
issued to make a map of the countj , as per 
following official act : 

County Commissioners' Court, June 4, 1839. 
It is ordered by said court that Lyman Meacham, 
Surveyor-elect for the county of Du Page, be and is 
hereby authorized to furnish to the Clerk of this 
court, as soon as possible, an estimate of the expense 
of surveying or taking from the Surveyors already 
made the said county, and making a map thereof 
showing thereby the boundaries of said county of 
Du Page as designated in an act entitled an act "To 
create the county of Du Page, and also showing 
thereby the location of the principal roads therein 
as at present located, and also showing on said map 
the principal groves, villages and settlements in 
said county, together with such other information 
as to the said Surveyors may seem proper." 

County Commissioners' Court, June 29, 1839. 

Ordered by the court, that the Treasurer pay Ly- 
man Meaeham, the sum of $13.18 in full for his ac- 
count for surveying the county line. 

Meantime the county was filling up with set- 
tlers, and the necessity for subdivisions, making 



up the usual machinery of county organization, 
became apparent. 

The following document shows the official 
action as to the matter : 

County Commissioners' Court, June 28, 1839. 

Ordered by the court, that all of that part of Du 
Page County, included within the following bound- 
aries, be and is hereafter known as Orange Precinct, 
to wit: Commencing on the northwest corner of 
said county, thence south on the west line of said 
county, far enough to include Job A. Smith, Murray 
and Kline, and to continue east far enough to turn 
due north and strike the west line of Mr. Clark's 
claim, and continue north to the county line, thence 
wist to the place of beginning. Their elections 
shall be held at the schoolhouse near Luther 
F. Sanderson, and Job A. Smith, William Kim- 
ball anQ Daniel Roundy are appointed Judges of 
Election. 

Ordered by the court, that all of that part of Du 
Page County included within the following bound- 
aries be hereafter known as Washington Precinct, 
to wit: Commencing at the northeast corner of the 
county, thence west ten miles to Orange Precinct, 
thence south five miles, thence east to the county 
line, thence north to the place of beginning. Their 
elections to be held at the house of Alanson Wat- 
son, and Charles Hoyt, Lloyd Stearns and Harvey 
Meacham are appointed Judges of Election. 

Ordered by the court, that all that part of Du 
Page County included within the following bound- 
aries be and is hereby known as Deerfield Precinct, 
to wit : Commencing at the southeast corner of 
Washington Precinct, thence running west nine 
miles; thence south five miles; thence east four 
miles; thence north two miles; thence east to 
the county line; thence north to the place of begin- 
ning. Elections to be held at Luther Morton's 
house, and Daniel Fish, N. 15. Morton and L. Q. 
Newton are appointed Judges of Election. 



140 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Ordered by the court, that all that part of Du 
Page County included within the following bound- 
aries be hereafter known as Webster Precinct, to 
wit: Commencing at the southeast corner of Deer- 
field Precinct, running west five miles; thence south 
two miles; thence west four miles; thence south five 
miles; thence east three miles ; thence south one 
mile; thence east to the county line; thence north 
to the place of beginning. Their elections to be 
held at the house of Horace Aldrich, and Luther 
Hatch, Pierce Downer and John Talmadge are ap- 
pointed Judges of Election. 

Ordered by the court, that all of that part of Du 
Page County included within the following bound- 
aries be hereafter known as Big Woods Precinct, 
to wit; Commencing at the southwest corner of the 
county, running north six miles; thence east to 
Reuben Austin's west line ; thence south to said 
Austin's southwest corner; thence east three miles 
from the west line of the county; thence south par- 
allel with the west line of the county to the south 
line of the county; thence west to the place of be- 
ginning. Their elections to be held at the house of 
Fred. Stolp, and Ashbel Culver. John Wame and 
Robt. H. Jefferson are appointed Judges of Election. 

Ordered by the court, that all of that part of Du 
Page County included within the following bound- 
aries be hereafter known as Du Page Precinct, to 
wit: Commencing at the southwest corner of Orange 
Precinct ; thence running cast eight miles ; thence 
north one mile; thence east one mile; thence south 
through the center of the county to the northeast 
corner line of Naperville Precinct; thence west to 
the line of the Big Woods Precinct; thence north on 
the Big Woods Precinct line; thence on the county 
line; thence to the place of beginning. Their elec- 
tions to be held at the house of Alfred Tufts, in 
Warrenville, and Warren Smith, George House and 
Angus Ross are appointed Judges of Election. 

Ordered by the court, that all of that part of Du 
Page County included within the following de- 
scribed boundaries be hereafter known as Naper- 
ville Precinct, to wit: Commencing at the southeast 
corner of Du Page Precinct; thence south on the 
west line of Webster Precinct till it strikes the 
Galena State road ; thence east three miles; thence 
south to the county line; thence west nine miles to 
the Big Woods Precinct; thence north on the east 
line of the Big Woods Precinct; thence east to the 
place of beginning. Their elections to be held at the 
Pre-emption House in Naperville, andS. M. Skinner, 
Stephen J. Scott and H. L. Peaslee are appointed 
Judges of Election. 



Ordered by the court, that all of that part of Du 
Page County, included within the following bounda- 
ries, be hereafter known as Cass Precinct, to wit : 
Commencing at the northwest corner of Section 30. 
Township 38, Range 11 ; thence east to the county 
line ; thence south to the Desplaiues River ; thence 
west, following the river and county line to the south- 
west corner of Section 18 ; thence north to the place 
of beginning: their elections to be held at the 
house of Alvin Lull, and George Jackson, Thomas 
Andrus and Alvin Lull are appointed Judges of 
Election. 

Ordered by the court, that all that part of Du 
Page County, included within the following described 
boundaries, be, and is hereafter to be known as York 
Precinct, commencing on the east line of Du Page 
County, at the southeast corner of Deerfield Pre- 
cinct ; thence west three miles ; thence south to the 
north line of Cass Precinct ; thence east to the east 
line of Du Page County ; thence north along the 
east line of said county to the place of beginning. 
The elections shall be held at the house now occu- 
pied by Sherman King, and that Benjamin Fuller, 
David Thurston and John Talmadge, be and they 
are hereby appointed Judges of Election in said pre- 
cinct. 

County Commissioners' Court, March 6, 1841. 

Ordered by the court, that the following described 
boundaries constitute, and be hereafter known as 
Washington Precinct, in Du Page County, to wit : 
The whole of Township 40 north, Range 11 east, of 
the Third Principal Meridian ; and, it is further or- 
dered by the court, that all elections to be in future 
held in said precinct, shall be held at the house of 
Ariel Bowman, and that John Lester, Mason Smith 
and Charles H. Hoit, be and they are hereby ap- 
pointed Judges of Election in said precinct. 

Ordered by the court, that the following described 
boundaries constitute and be hereafter known as 
Bloomingdale Precinct, in Du Page County, to wit : 
Commencing on the north line of said county, on 
the line between Ranges 10 and 11 ; thence west on 
the north line of the county four miles ; thence 
south five miles ; thence east to the line between 
Ranges 10 and 11 ; thence north to the place of 
beginning. And it is further ordered by the court, 
that all elections that may be held in said precinct, 
shall be held in the schoolhouse in said precinct, 
near Orange Kent's, and that Harvey Meacham, 
Harry Woodworth and Loyd Stearns, be and they 
are hereby appointed Judges of Elections in said 
precinct. 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



141 



County Commissioners' Court, June-' 8, 1846. 

Ordered by the court, that Congressional Town- 
ship 40 north. Range 11 east, of the Third Principal 
Meridian in the county of Du Page, State of Illi- 
nois, constitute and be hereafter known as Washing- 
ton Precinct, and that all elections in said precinct 
shall be held at the house known as the Salt Creek 
House in said township. 

Ordered by the court, that Congressional Town- 
ship 40 north, Range 10 east, of the Third Principal 
Meridian, in the county of Du Page, State of 
Illinois, constitute and be hereafter known as 
Bloomingdale Precinct, and that all elections to be 
held in said precinct shall be held at the school- 
house in the town of Bloomingdale in said precinct. 

Ordered by the court that Congressional Town- 
ship 39 north. Range 11 east, of the Third Principal 
Meridian, in the county of Du Page, in the State of 
Illinois, constitute and be hereafter known as York 
Precinct, and that all elections to be held in said 
precinct shall be held at the house of Hiram Brown 
in said township. 

Ordered by the court, that Congressional Town- 
ship 39 north, Range 10 east, of Third Principal 
Meridian, in the County of Du Page, State of Illi- 
nois, constitute and be hereafter known as Deerfield 
Precinct, and that all elections to lie held in said 
precinct shall be held at the house of Jesse C. 
Wheaton in said township. 

Ordered by the court, that Congressional Town- 
ship 40 north, Range 9 east, of the Third Principal 
Meridian, and Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 in Town- 
ship 39 north, Range 9 east, of the Third Principal 
Meridian, in the county of Du Page, State of Illi- 
nois, constitute and be hereafter known as Orange 
Precinct, and that, all elections to be held in said 
precinct shall be held at the house of Joseph Mc- 
Millen in said precinct. 

Ordered by the court, that all that portion of 
Congressional Township 39 north. Range 9 east, of 
the Third Principal Meridian, that lies south of the 
smith line of Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, in said 
township, and Sections 1, 2 and 3 in Township 38 
north, Range 9 east, of Third Principal Meridian, 
together with Sections 5 and 6 in Township 38 
north, Range 10 east, of the Third Principal Me- 
ridian, in the county of Du Page, State of Illinois, 
constitute and be hereafter known as Du Page Pre- 
cinct, and that all elections to be held in said pre- 
cinct shall be held at the house known as the War- 
renville Hotel in said precinct. 

Ordered by the court, that the following bound- 
aries be hereafter known as Big Woods Precinct, in 



the county of Du Page and State of Illinois, to wit: 
Commencing at the northeast corner of Section 4, 
in Township 38 north, Range 9 east, of the Third 
Principal Meridian; from thence west along town- 
ship line to county line between Kane and Du Page 
Counties; thence south along county line to county 
line between Will and Du Page Counties; thence 
east along county line to the southeast corner of 
Section 33, in Township 38 aforesaid; thence north 
to the place of beginning, and that all elections to 
be held in said precinct shall be held at the house of 
Frederick Stolp in said precinct. 

Ordered by the court, that the following bound- 
aries constitute and be hereafter known as Naper- 
ville Precinct, in the county of Du Page, in the 
State of Illinois, to wit; Commencing at the south- 
west corner of Section 34, in Township 38 north, 
Range 9 east, of the Third Principal Meridian ; from 
thence north to the northwest corner of Section 10, 
in said township; from thence east to the northeast 
corner of Section 8, in Township 38 north. Range 
10 east, of Third Principal Meridian; thence north 
to township line between Townships 38 and 39, 
Range 10 east; thence east along township line to 
the center of the Du Page River; thence southerly 
along the center of said river to the county line be- 
tween Will and Du Page Counties; thence west to 
the place of beginning; and that all elections to be 
held in said precinct, shall be held at the court 
house in Naperville in said precinct. 

Ordered by the court, that the following bound- 
aries constitute and be hereafter known as Webster 
Precinct, in the County of Du Page and State of 
Illinois, to wit: Commencing at the northeast cor- 
ner of Section 1, in Township 38 north, Range 11 
east, of Third Principal Meridian ; from thence 
west along the township line to the center of East 
Branch of the Du Page River; thence southerly 
along the center of said river to the section line 
between Sections 22, 23, 26 and 27; thence east to 
the southeast corner of Section 21, in Township 38 
north. Range 11 east; thence north to the north- 
east corner of said Section 21; thence east to the 
county line between Cook and Du Page Counties; 
thence north to the place of beginning; and that all 
elections to be held in said precinct, shall be held at 
the house of Levi C. Aldrich in said precinct, and 
that Jeduthan Hatch. John Stanley and Leonard K. 
Hatch be Judges of Election in said precinct. 

Ordered by the court, that all that portion of 
Township 37 north, Range 11 east, of the Third 
Principal Meridian, that lies in the county of Du 
Page and State of Illinois, and Sections 22, 23, 



142 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 and 36, in 
Township 38 north, Range 11 east, together with 
those parts of Sections 25, 26, 35 and 36, in Town- 
ship 38 north, Range 10 east, that lies east of the 
center of the East Branch of the Du Page River, 
constitute and be hereafter known as Cass Precinct; 
and that all elections to be held in said precinct 
shall be held at the house known as the Washing- 
ton Hotel in said precinct. 
In County Court of Du Page County, December 

5, A. D. 1849. 

Commissioners to divide county into townships: 
Whereas, the Legislature of Illinois, did, at its 
last regular session, provide by law for the organi- 
zation of counties into towns ; and, that the law 
containing such provision, should, at the next gen- 
eral election, be caused to be submitted to the people 
of the several counties in said State, for their adop- 
tion or rejection ; and, whereas, at the last general 
election, said law was adopted by the county of Du 
Page, in the State of Illinois, as appears from the 
following abstract of the votes, for, or against, town- 
ship organization, to wit : 

State of Illinois, ) 
Du Page County, f " 

We, James F. Wight and Levi C. Aldrich, two of 
the Justices of the Peace, and Hiram H. Cody, Clerk 
of the County Commissioners' Court of said county, 
hereby certify that the following is a true and cor- 
rect abstract of the votes given at an election held 
in the several precincts in said county, on Tuesday, 
the sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, for 
and against township organization, to wit : For 
township organization, there were seven hundred 
and seventy-three votes ; against township organi- 
zation there was one vote. 

Witness our hands and seals at Naperville, in said 
county, this twelfth day of November, A. D. 1849. 
James F. Wight, J. P. [seal.] 
Levi C. Aldrich, J. P. [seal. J 
Hiram H. Cody, Clerk, [seal.] 

And, whereas, said law requires the County Com- 
missioners' Court, or the County Court, whichever 
shall be in commission at the next session after said 
election in those counties, which shall adopt said 
law, to appoint three Commissioners to divide such 
counties respectively into towns. 

It is ordered by the court, that, in pursuance of 
the first article of the act to provide for township 
organization, Capt. Joseph Naper, Daniel Fish and 
Erasmus O. Hills, be, and they are hereby appointed 



Commissioners to divide the county of Du Page 
aforesaid into towns, as anticipated and required by 
said act. 

Agreeable to their authority, the Commission- 
ers met and organized the county into townships 
as they now appear on maps of the county. 

The next business was to elect a Board of 
Supervisors, which was done the same year, 
and the following is their official action at their 
first meeting : 

State of Illinois, | 

Du Page County. | ** November 11, 1850. 

The Board of Supervisors of the county of Du 
Page and State of Illinois, met on Monday the 11th 
day of November A. D. 1850, for their first annual 
meeting, at the office of the Clerk of the County 
Court in Naperville in said count}', and were organ- 
ized by the selection of Russell Whipple as their 
Chairman. 

The following members, upon a call of the roll 
of the towns were present, to wit: 

Addison, Smith D. Pierce; Bloomingdale, Eras- 
mus O. Hills; Wayne, Luther Pierce ; Winfield, 
William C. Todd ; Milton, Warren L. Wheaton; 
Downer's Grove, Leonard K. Hatch ; Du Page, 
Amasa Morse; Naperville, Russell Whipple ; York, 
not represented. 

On motion, the following standing committees 
were appointed by the Chair: 

On Claims— E. O. Hills, Warren L. Wheaton, 
Luther Pierce. 

On Paupers— W. C. Todd, L. K. Hatch, S. D. 
Pierce. 

On Equalization— W. L. Wheaton, E. O. Hills, 
Amasa Morse. 

On Court House and Jail — S. D. Pierce, L. K. 
Hatch, A. Morse. 

On Finance— E. O. Hills, W. L. Wheaton, Luther 
Pierce. 

On motion of W. L. Wheaton, a select committee 
was appointed by the Chair on Printing. 

The Chair appointed W. L. Wheaton, W. C. Todd 
and Amasa Morse. 

Various claims being presented, were referred to 
appropriate committees. 

On motion, the Chair appointed the following 
Supervisors a select Committee on Licenses: 

William C. Todd, W. L. Wheaton, A. Morse. 

A memorial on the subject of License addressed 
to the Board was presented by Supervisor Todd, 
and, on motion, referred to the Committee on Li- 





I^>. 




HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



143 



censes; said memorial was signed by about three 
hundred and fifty ladies. 

The certificates of the Town Auditor of the towns 
of Winfield, Addison, Downer's Grove, Naperville, 
and Wayne were presented by the several Super- 
visors of said towns, and, on motion, referred to the 
Committee on Claims. 

On motion, it is ordered that the board adjourn 
until to-morrow morning at 9 o'clock. 

For ten years previous, no change had been 
made in the general formula of official author- 
ity, but in 1849 the Clerk of the Circuit Court 
was constituted Recorder, ex officio. 

The County Court was composed of a Count} 7 
Judge and two Justices of the Peace. The 
County Clerk became the Clerk of the Couuty 
Commissioners. The County Judge and two 
County Justices were a board for the transaction 
of county business, and the County Judge with 
the Clerk were clothed with authority to tran- 
sact probate business. The organization of not 
only the count}- but the townships, with their 
officers, having been completed, the following 
list of them is here inserted, which will serve 
the reader as a chronological record of the 
progress of the county : 

The following is a list of those who served 
the county in the Legislature of the State : 

1836 — Capt. Joseph Naper, of Naperville. 
1838— Capt. Joseph Naper of Naperville. 
1842 — Jeduthan Hatch, of Lisle. 
1844— Julius M. Warren, of Winfield. 
1846— Capt. E. Kinne, of Bloomingdale. 
1848— Warren L. Wheaton, of Milton. 
1850— Willard T. Jones, of Naperville. 
1852 — Capt. Joseph Naper, of Naperville. 
1854— E. O. Hills, of Bloomingdale. 
1856— Truman W. Smith, of Winfield. 
1860— F. H. Mather, of Milton. 
1862— A. S. Barnard, of Lisle. 

1864 — S. P. Sedgwick, of Bloomingdale, resigned ; 
H. C. Childs, of Milton, elected to fill vacancy. 
1866— H. C. Childs of Milton. 
1868 -H. C. Childs, of Milton. 
1870 — William M. Whitney, of Downer's Grove. 
1874— James Claflin, of Lombard ; V. Fredenha- 

gen, of Downer's Grove. 
1876— James G. Wright, of Naperville. 



COUNTY CLERKS. 

1839— Clark A. Lewis, of Warrenville ; 
elected July 14, died the same month. 
1839 to 1846— Allen C. Mcintosh, of Naperville. 
1847 to 1852— Hiram H. Cody, of Bloomingdale. 
1853 to 1860— Myron C. Dudley, of Bloomingdale. 
1861 to 1864— C. M. Castle, of Naperville. 
1865 to 1868— F. J. Fischer, of Addison. 

1868— H. B. Hills (vacancy), of Blooming- 
dale. 
1869 to 1876— J. J. Cole, of Downer's Grove. 
1876 to 1882— M. S. Ellsworth, Lisle. 

CIRCUIT CLERKS. 

1839 to 1842— Patrick Ballingall, of Naperville. 

1843 to 1846— E. B. Bill, of Naperville. 

1847 to 1849— John J. Riddler, of Naperville. 

RECORDERS. 

1839 to 1842— S. M. Skinner, of Naperville. 
1843 to 1846— A. S. Jones, of Naperville. 
1847 to 1849— John J. Riddler, of Naperville. 

CLERKS AND RECORDERS. 

1850 to 1851— John J. Riddler, of Naperville. 
1852 to 1855 — Peter Northrup, of Addison. 

1856 to 1859— John Gloss, of Wayne. 

1860 to 1867 -W. M. Whitney, of Winfield. 

1868 to 1876— John Gloss, of Wayne. 
1876 to 1880— Frank Hull, of Milton. 
1880 to 1884— Thomas M. Hull, of Milton. 

TREASURERS. 

1839— Morris Sleight, of Naperville. 
1839 to 1842— Stephen J. Scott, of Naperville 

1843 to 1844— Robert K. Potter, of Naperville. 
1845 to 1846— John J. Kimball, of Naperville. 

1847 to 1848 — Nelson A. Thomas (vacancy) of Na- 
perville. 
1849 to 1854— Henry F. Vallette, of Milton. 
1855 to 1856— William J. Johnson, of Milton. 

1857 to 1858— Hiram Standish, of Naperville. 
1859 to 1860— Henry F. Vallette, of Milton. 

1861 to 1862— S. M. Skinner, of Naperville. 
1863 to 1868— Daniel N. Gross, of Naperville. 

1869 to 1872— Joel Wiant, of Winfield; Henry M 

Bender, of Bloomingdale. 
1873 to 1876— Lewis C. Stover, of Milton, from 1876 
to 1880. 

SHERIFFS. 

1839 to 1841— Daniel M. Greene, of Lisle. 
1842 to 1843— Hiram Fowler, of Naperville. 

1844 to 1845— R. N. Murray, of Naperville. 



144 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



1846 to 1849— George Rou.sb, of Naperville. 
1850 to 1851— C. R. Parmlee, of Lisle. 

1852 to 1853— Truman W. Smith, of Winfield. 
1854 to 1855— A. C. Graves, of Winfield. 

185(3 to 1857— James J. Hunt, of Naperville. 
1858 to 1859— A. C. Graves, of Winfield. 

1860 to 1861— T. S. Rogers, of Downer's Grove. 
1862 to 1863— James J. Hunt, of Naperville. 

1864 to 1865— Samuel E. Shimp, of Naperville. 
1866 to 1867— Philip Strubler, of Naperville. 

1868 to 1869— Charles Rinehart, of Wayne. 
1870 to 1876— John Kline, of Wayne. 

1876 to 1882— Samuel E. Shimp, Naperville. 

COUNTY JUDGES. 

1839— J. W. Walker, of Downer's Grove. 
1839 to 1842— Lewis Ellsworth, of Naperville. 
1843 to 1846— Nathan Allen, of Naperville. 

1847 to 1848— John J. Kimball, of Naperville. 
1849 to 1851— Nathan Allen, of Naperville. 

1852 — Jeduthan Hatch, of Lisle. 

1853 to 1859— Walter Blanchard, of Downer's 

Grove. 
1860— Seth F. Daniels (vacancy), of Milton. 

1861 to 1864— Hiram II. Cody, of Naperville. 

1865 to 1868— Seth F. Daniels, of Milton. 

1869 to 1872— M. C. Dudley of Naperville. 
1873 to 1876— A. S. Janes, of Milton. 

1876 to 1877— S. P. Sedgwick, Milton, to fill vacancy. 

1877 to 1882— Robert N. Murray, Naperville. 



1839- 
1839 to 1846- 
1847 to 1858- 
1859 to 1861- 

1862- 

1863 to 1866 
1867 to 1870- 
1871 to 1876 
1876 to 1882- 



1839- 
1840 to 1841- 
1842 to 1843- 
1844 to 1845 
1846 to 1847- 

1848- 
1849 to 1851- 
1852 to 1853- 
1854 to 1855- 



COUNTY SURVEYORS. 

-L. Meacham, of Bloomingdale. 
-Joel B. Kimball, of Naperville. 
-Horace Brooks, of Milton. 
-J. G. Vallette, of Milton. 
-James M. Vallette (vacancy), of Na- 
perville. 
-A. S. Janes, of Milton. 
-James M. Vallette, of Naperville. 
-A. S. Janes, of Milton. 
-James M. Vallette, of Lisle. 

CORONERS. 

-H. L. Peaslee, of Naperville. 
-E. G. Wight, of Naperville. 
-Nathan Loring, of Naperville. 
-Jacob Keefer, of Naperville. 
-D. C. Gould, of Naperville. 
-LaFayette Avery, of Milton. 
-C. C. Barnes, of Naperville. 
-F. C. Hagerman, of Winfield. 
-W. B. Stewart, of Naperville. 



1856 to 1857- 


1858 to 1861- 


1862 to 1863- 


1864 to 1865- 


1866- 


1867- 


1868 to 1869- 


1870 to 1876- 


1876 to 1878- 


1878 to 1879- 


1879 to 1880- 


1880 to 1882- 


1839 to 1842- 


1843- 


1844 to 1846 


1847 to 1848 


1849 to 1855- 


1856- 


1857 to 1858 


1859 to 1860- 


1861 to 1863 



-Alfred Waterman, of Milton. 

-H. C Daniels, of Naperville. 

-Dr. Brown, of Milton. 

-H. C. Daniels, of Naperville. 

-Clinton Cushing. 

-George W. Beggs, of Naperville. 

-F. C. Hagerman, of Winfield. 

-H. C. Daniels, of Naperville. 

-George F. Heiderman, York. 

-George L. Madison, of Winfield. 

-A. C. Cotton, Winfield, to fill vacancy. 

-A. C. Cotton. Winfield. 

SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. 

-Lewis Ellsworth, of Naperville. 
-R. N. Murray, of Naperville. 
-Horace Brooks, of Milton. 
-W. L. Wheaton, of Milton. 
-Hope Brown, of Naperville. 
-Lorin Barnes, of Bloomingdale. 
-Charles W. Richmond, of Naperville. 
-Lorin Barnes, of Bloomingdale. 
-George P. Kimball, of Milton. 



COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS OF SCHOOLS. 

1864— George P. Kimball, of Milton. 
1865 to 1876— Charles W. Richmond, of Naperville. 
1876 to 1881— J. R, Haggard, Downer's Grove. 
1881 to 1882— H. A. Fischer, Milton. 

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS. 

1839— Josiah Strong, Lisle; J. W. Walker, Downer's 
Grove; H. L. Cobb, Cass; R. P.Whipple, Na- 
perville; Hiram Fowler, Winfield. 

1840— J. W. Walker, Downer's Grove; H. L. Cobb, 
Cass; Noah Stevens, Bloomingdale. 

1841— J. W. Walker, Downer's Grove; J. A. Smith, 
Wayne; Noah Stevens, Bloomingdale. 

1842— Warren Smith, Winfield; J. A. Smith, Wayne; 
Noah Stevens, Bloomingdale. 

1843— J. A. Smith, Wayne; T. Hubbard, York. 

1844 — John Thompson, Lisle; J. A. Smith, Wayne. 

1845 — John Thompson, Lisle ; Thomas Andrus, 
Cass; T. Hubbard, York. 

1846— John Thompson, Lisle; Thomas Andrus, Cass; 
Asa Knapp, York. 

1847 — John Thompson, Lisle; Smith D. Pierce, Ad- 
dison ; Asa Knapp, York. 

1848 — David Crane, Naperville; Smith D. Pierce, 
Addison; Asa Knapp, York. 

SUPERVISORS — TOWN OP ADDISON. 

1850— Smith D. Pierce. 
1851— John Pierce. 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 145 


1853— Peter Northrup. 


1862 to 1864-E. Manville. 


1853— Edward Lester. 


1865 — John Fairbanks. 


1854 — James Wakeman. 


1866 — Amos C. Graves. 


1855 to 1858— Henry D. Fischer. 


1867 to 1869— J. H. Lakey. 


1859 to 1860— John H. Franzen. 


1870— E. Manville. 


1861 — James Wakeman. 


1871 to 1873— J. H. Lakey. 


1863— Smith D. Pierce. 


1874 to 1875— E. Manville. 


1863 to 1865— James "Wakeman. 


1875 to 1876— J. H. Lakey. 


1866— Henry D. Fischer. 


1876 to 1877— A. T. Jones. 


1867 to 1870— August Meyer. 


1877 to 1880— G. J. Atchinson. 


1871 — James Wakeman. 


1880 to 1882— C. W. Gary. 


1873 to 1875— Henry D. Fischer. 




1876 — Henry Korthauer. 
1876 to 1883— Henry Korthauer. 


TOWN OP MILTON. 

1850— Warren L. Wheaton. 
1851 to 1855— William J. Johnson. 


TOWN OP BLOOMINGDALE. 


1856 to 1857— Frederick H. Mather. 


1850 to 1851— E. 0. Hills. 


1858 to 1862— H. C. Childs. 


1853— H. B. Hills. 


1863— Erastus Gary. 


1853— Cyrus H. Meacham. 


1864 to 1865— Hiram Smith. 


1854— J. G. Yearick. 


1866— Hiram Smith and S. W. Moffatt. 


1855— Daniel H. Deibert. 


1867— A. S. Janes and II. Edwards. 


1856 — Horace Barnes. 


1868 to 1869— A. S. Janes and H. F. Vallette. 


1857 to 1863- Cyrus H. Meacham. 


1870 to 1871— A. S. Janes and S. P. Sedgwick. 


1864 to 1873— W. K. Patrick. 


1872 to 1873— A. S. Janes and E. H. Gary. 


1874 to 1876— William Rathge. 


1874 to 1875— H. G. Kimball and E. H. Gary. 


1876 to 1877— A. D. Loomis. 


1875— W. H. Wagner and Erastus Gary. 


1877 to 1883— William Rathge. 


1876— W. H. Wagner and S. W. Moffatt. 


TOWN OP WATNB. 

1850 to 1853— Luther Pierce. 
1853 to 1854— Luther Bartlett. 

1855— Luther Pierce. 

1856— Ira Albro. 


1878— W. H. Wagner and S. W. Moffatt. 
1879— Amos Churchill and N. E. Gary. 
1880 -Amos Churchill and N. E. Gary. 
1881— Amos Churchill and S. P. Sedgwick. 
1882— Amos Churchill and S. W. Moffatt. 


1857 to 1858— Charles Adams. 


TOWN OF YORK. 


1859 to 1860— S. W. Moffatt. 


1850— E. Eldridge. 


1861 to 1863— Samuel Adams. 


1850 to 1852— Gerry Bates. 


1863 to 1867— Warren H. Moffatt. 


1853— W. Burbank. 


1868 to 1873— Daniel Dunham. 


1853— H. Whittmore. 


1874 to 1875— A. M. Glos. 


1854 — Asa Knapp. 


1876— R. H. Reed. 


1855 to 1856— Robert Reed. 


1876 to 1877— R. H. Reed. 


1857 to 1860— Frederick Gray. 


1877 to 1878— A. M. Glos. 


1861 to 1863— George Barber. 


1878 to 1879— Luther Bartlett. 


1864— Adam Hatfield. 


1879 to 1881— A. M. Glos. 


1865 to 1867— Frederick Gray. 


1881 to 1883— James Shields. 


1868— August Meyer. 


TOWN OP WINPIELD. 

1850 to 1852— William C. Todd. 
1853 to 1854— Charles Gary. 

1855 — Gurdon N. Roundy. 

1856— Truman W. Smith. 


1869— George Barber. 
1870 to 1875— Adam Glos. 

1876 — Henry Goldermann. 
1876 to 1879— Henry Goldermann. 
1879 to 1883— Adam Glos. 


1857— Charles Gary. 


TOWN OF NAPERVLLLK. 


1858 to 1860— John Fairbanks. 


1850 to 1851— Russell Whipple. 


1861— Alfred Waterman. 


1853 — Joseph Naper. 



146 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



1861 to 



1865 to 



1869 to 



1876 to 

1879 to 

1880 to 

1881 to 



1853— Hiram Bristol. 
1854— David Hess. 
1855— R. N Murray. 
1856— Charles Hunt. 
1857 — N Crampton and Joseph Naper.* 
1858 — Charles Jenkins and John Jassoy.* 
1859— Jacob Baylor and Michael Hines.* 
1860— James G. "Wright and M. S. Hobson.* 
1862— B. W. Hughes and Morris Sleight* 
1863 — Charles Jenkins aud Robert Naper.* 
1864— Charles Jenkins aud D. C. Butler.* 
1866— Charles Hunt aud John Collins.* 
1867— B. W. Hughes and H. H. Cody.* 
1868— Charles Jenkins and R. N. Murray.* 
1872— Charles Jenkins and M. C. Dudley.* 
1873— Charles Jenkins and James Dunlap.* 
1875— James G. Wright and B. B. Boecker.* 
1876— Christian Wise and Lewis Ellsworth.* 
1879— C. Wise and J. J. Hunt. 
1880— C. Wise and A. Mc. S. S. Riddler. 
1881— C. Wise and H. C. Daniels. 
1882— Adam Keler and Peter Thompson. 



TOWN OP LISLE. 

1850 — Amasa Morse. 

1851— Jeduthan Hatch. 

1852— John Stanley. 

1853— Lewis Ellsworth. 

1854— Hiram H. Cody. 

1855— James C. Hatch. 

1856 — Amasa Morse. 

1857— John Collins. 

1858— William B. Greene. 

1859— A. S. Barnard. 

1860— Graham Thome. 

1861— John H. Hobson. 

1862— C. H. Goodrich. 

1863— R. S. Palmer. 
1864 to 1865— Gilbert Barber. 

1866— E. E. Page. 

1867— Lewis Ellsworth. 
1868 to 1875— E. E. Page. 

1875 to 1876— William King. 

1876 to 1881— William King. 
1881 to 1882— B. B. Boecker. 



* Presidents of village uf Naperville, and ex officio Superviiore. 



TOWN OF DOWNER'S GROVE. 

1850— Leonard K. Hatch. 
1851 to 1853— Walter Blanchard. 

1854— G. W. Alderman. 

1855— Walter Blanchard. 

1856— Seth F. Daniels. 

1857— Samuel DeGolyer. 
1858 to 1861— Leonard K. Hatch. 

1862— L. D. Fuller. 

1863— Leonard K. Hatch. 

1864— John A. Thatcher. 

1865— T. S. Rogers. 

1866 to 1868— J. J. Cole. 

1869— J. J. Cole. 
1869— J. W. Rogers (vacancy). 
1870— Alanson Ford. 
1871 to 1872— V. Fredenhagen. 
1873— H. F. Walker. 

1874 to 1875— V. Fredenhagen. 

1875 to 1876— Alanson Ford. 

1876 to 1877— Alanson Ford. 

1877 to 1882— Charles Curtiss. 

The following are the names of the Judges 
who have presided in this Judicial Circuit : 

1840 — John Pearsons. 
1841 to 1842— Theophilus W. Smith. 
1843 to 1847— Richard M. Young. 
1847 to 1849— Jesse B. Thomas. 
1849 to 1855— Hugh Henderson. 
1855 to 1857— S. W. Randall. 
1857 to 1861— Jesse O. Norton. 
1861 to 1867— Isaac G. Wilson. 

1867 to 1874— Sylvanus Wilcox. 

1874 to 1876— Hiram H. Cody, C. W. Upton, Isaac 
G. Wilson, Charles Kullem. 
The total valuation of all taxable property in Du 
Page County in 1840 was $196,292, on which 
$981.46 was paid for county taxes, and $392.58 for 
State taxes, making $1,374.04, the total tax in 1840. 
There were then only State and county taxes, the 
State tax being two mills on the dollar, and the 
county tax five mills on the dollar, making but seven 
mills on the dollar, the full tax. There are now 
(1882), State, county, town, road and bridge, school 
and corporation taxes, added to which are special 
assessments when necessary for specific objects. 






HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



147 



SHOWING THE ASSESSED VALUE OP REAL ESTATE AND PERSONAL PROPERTY IN DU PAGE 
COUNTY FOR THE YEARS 1850 AND 1881. 



TOWNSHIPS 



Addison 

Bloomingdale 

Wayne 

Wintleld 

Milton 

York 

Downer's Grove . 

Lisle 

Naperville 



Totals 

Amt. R. R. property added. 

Grand total 



Real Estate 

Assessment. 



for 1881. 



Real Estate 
Assessment. 



FOE 1881. 
Lots. 



Personal 
Property. 



Personal 
Property. 



Aggregate 
Valuation. 



$64 289 
52 007 
90 196 
100 358 
108 271 
108 784 

96 785 

97 767 
165 766 



$461 
485 
449 
456 
452 
455 
604 
456 
485 



985 
853 
524 
021 
737 
124 
853 
602 
790 



$18 565 

18 902 

4 985 

77 675 

12S 6S3 

84 193 

265 359 

70 272 

146 828 



$42 425 
29 978 

31 333 
48 274 
34 305 
25 847 

32 280 
36 663 
67 409 



$129 999 
89 052 
66 179 
82 972 
84 334 
98 253 

144 273 
98 163 

123 206 



$106 694 
81 985 
121 329 
148 632 
142 576 
134 631 
129 065 
134 430 
233 175 



$884 203 $4258 489 ] $815 460 I $348 314 i $916 431 



$1232 517 $5990 380 
$ 620 032 



Aggregate 
Valuation. 



$610 549 

543 807 

520 688 

616 668 

665 754 

637 568 

1014 485 

625 037 

755 824 



!$6610 412 



Note. — The first assessment of real estate in the county was in 1850. 

I, L. C. Stover, Treasurer Du Page County, do hereby certify that the foregoing statement is correct. 

L. C. Stover, County Treasurer for Du Page County, 111. 



148 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Following are the names of the hist Grand 
Jury ever impaneled in Du Page County 
summoned to appear at term of Circuit Court 
begun and held at Naperville, in said county, 
by virtue of an act entitled "An act to create 
the county of Du Page, "approved February 
9, A D. 1837, on the 23d day of September, 
A. D. 1837," to wit: 

William J. Strong, Morris Sleight, George 
S. Blackman, Luther Hatch, John Thompson, 
Thomas Andrus, Hiland Martin, Moor R. 
Webster, Isaac Clark, Moses Stacy, Jonathan 
Barnes, Luther Morton, Lloyd Stearns, Israel 
P. Blodgett, David Page, Samuel Curtiss, 
Elisha Fish, William C. Todd, Warren Smith, 
Abel E. Carpenter, James Lamb, Frederick 
Stolp and John Maxwell; and the said Lu- 
ther Hatch was appointed to act as foreman; 
and the first Petit Jury was John Naper, 
Amander P. Thomas, Russell Whipple, 
John Stevens, Jr., Shadrach Harris, Nathan 
Stewart, Harry Goodrich, David G. Parson, 
Harry Meacham, Theodore Hubbard, Nathan- 
iel B. Morton, Levi Ballou, Moses K. Hoyt, 
Pierce Downer, Walter Blanchard, Horace 
Aldrich, John Tallmadge, Henry T. Wilson, 
Seth Sprague, Ethan Griswold, David Wad- 
ham, Daniel H. Orcutt, John Warne and Jo- 
seph Means. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

Previous to 1855, a vigorous system of ed- 
ucation prevailed in Du Page County, but it 
was not as general and uniform as at pres- 
ent. 

The Naperville Academy, the Illinois In- 
stitute at Wheaton, and the Warrenville 
Seminary, were in their full tide of success 
during that time, as well as a goodly number 
of district and private schools. 

At that date (1855), Rev. Hope Brown, 
School Commissioner, made a report which 
showed the number of school districts in the 
county to be sixty-eight, four of which had 



no schoolhouses. The number of pupils was 
two thousand or more. Twelve hundred 
studied arithmetic, 500 studied geography, 
250 English grammar, and 100 such biglier 
branches as algebra, physiology and natural 
philosophy. 

Schools were taught from six to eight 
months each year, but in some of the districts 
there were no winter schools. 

The wages of female teachers were from 
$8 to $16 per month, besides board; and for 
male teachers, from $16 to $30 per month. 

Five years later, in I860, the report of Ho- 
race Barnes, School Commissioner, shows that 
there were eighty-one schools in the county, 
and 4,054 children who attended schools, out 
of a school census showing those between the 
ages of five and twenty-one of 4,909. Four- 
teen district libraries were purchased in 1860 
— one in Addison Township, six in Bloom- 
ingdale Township, one in Winfield Town- 
ship, and three each in Milton and York 
Townships. The amount raised by direct tax 
in the county for school purposes that year 
was $8, 885. 74, and the amount raised by the 
State fund paid to the County Treasurer was 
$6,480.75, making a total of receipts from 
county tax and State appropriation, for the 
year 1860, to be expended for schools, of $15,- 
366.29. 

The average monthly wages paid to female 
teachers the same year was $12 per month, 
and to male teachers, $24.50. 

The report of C. W. Richmond, the County 
Superintendent of Schools, for the year 1870 
shows the number of school districts in the 
county to be eighty-seven; number of persons 
between the ages of six and twenty-one to be 
5,298. The gross receipts for the support of 
schools for the year were $6,109.50, $5,727.- 
15 of which came from school tax direct, 
$359.55 from interest on school, college and 
seminary fund, and $23 from fines and for- 



HISTOHY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



149 



feitures. Added to this was $6,042.63, which 
should have been paid in from the State tax 
of 2 mills on the dollar the year before, but, 
through some informality, did not come. 
Although it was paid in by the State in 1870, 
it properly belonged to the fund of 1869. 

The same year (1870), female teachers re- 
ceived from $12 to $70 per month, and male 
teachers from $30 to $80 per month. 

The number of graded schools in the 
county was seven, three of which were in 
Wintield Township, two in Milton, one in 
Downer's Grove and one in Naperville Town- 
ship. 

Said Judge Cody, in a Fourth of July ad- 
dress at Naperville in 1876: " We have ex- 
changed the log schoolhou.se of 1831 for two 
magnificent colleges, two theological semi- 
naries and for high schojls and free schools 
of easy access to every child within our lim- 
its." ' 

This expresses the general situation at that 
date, showing the complete introduction of 
oar school system, which is now in full tide 
of progress. 

The report of H. A. Fischer, County Super- 
intendent of Schools for 1882, shows the 
number of graded schools in the county to be 
six, two of which are in Downer's Grove, two 
in Milton, one in Wintield and one in Naper- 
ville. 

The number of ungraded schools are 
seventy-seven, making a total number of 
schools in the county, exclusive of private 
schools, to be eighty-three. The total num- 
ber of persons in the county between the ages 
of six and twenty-one was 9,116. 

Sixteen districts have school libraries, the 
total value of which is $1,080. 

The average monthly wages paid male 
teachers was $49.15, and female teachers, 
$32.84. 

The entire receipts for the support of 



schools for the year were $46,122.91, $1,032. - 
11 of which was from income of township 
fund, $6,473.20 from State fund and fines 
appropriated for the benefit of schools, $37, - 
888.51 from special district taxes, $285 from 
sale of school property, and $127.64 from 
various other sources. 

Of the six graded schools reported in the 
county, four are high schools. The distinc- 
tion between the two grows out of the fact 
that in high schools a regular course of study 
is pursued, and pupils who take the full 
course are entitled to a diploma at gradua- 
tion. 

These schools are located at Naperville, 
Wheaton, Turner Junction and Hinsdale. 

Of the school libraries in the county, Prof. 
Fisher, in his repoi-t, speaks in terms of com- 
mendation, stating that they are made up of 
valuable works on history, biography, poetry, 
science and romance of a high character, and 
almost exempt from the gushing style of dime 
novels. 

As to the discipline of the schools, it may 
be stated that the moral force of the teachers 
over the pupils is gathering force, and there 
is little, if any, danger that it will ever lose 
its grip — certainly not as long as the stand- 
ard of teachers is kept up to its present grade. 
And here the writer cannot forbear to draw a 
comparison between the teachers of Du Page 
County schools and the teachers of New York 
City schools, which schools he has recently 
visited, and, in justice to home talent, must 
give it the preference. Here our most es- 
teemed families are not above letting their 
sons or daughters teach, but in New York or 
Brooklyn such is not the case, and the class 
teachers there have to be taken from ranks in 
society not always clothed with the dignity 
of aristocracy in intelligence. 

By State authority, a 2-mill tax is collected 
on all property and appropriated according 



150 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



to the school census of each township, which 
census enumerates those under twenty -one 
years of age. Direct taxes for schools in 
this county are assessed for each school dis- 
trict, according to their i astructions. 

THE OLD STAGE COACH. 

The old stage coach, mail routes and roads 
were an institution once in the heyday of their 
glory in Du Page County, and the old settlers 
love to think of the good old sociables held 
in these vehicles, which jostled the passen- 
gers into good nature with each other, as the 
Jehu in the box bulldozed his horses through 
the sloughs. 

In 1825, a Mr. Kellogg pioneered his way 
across the prairie from Peoria to Galena. 
This was the first road that ever went to the 
place, although it had been settled a century, 
but reached by way of the River. Dixon was 
settled in 1830, and in 1834, a stage line was 
established to it and Galena from Chicago, 
through the following points: Lawton's, on 
the Desplaines; Brush Hill, where Oriente 
Grant opened a tavern next year; Naper's 
settlement, where a post office was then es- 
tablished named Paw Paw; Gray's Crossing, 
where Mr. Gray lived, at a favorable fording 
place on the Fox River, two miles below the 
present site of Aurora; Dixon, on the Rock 
River, where Mr. Dixon kept a ferry; Apple 
River, where a fort was built, twenty miles 
southeast of Galena; thence to Galena, the 
termination of the line. This was the first 
legally established road through the county. 
Joseph Naper was one of the Commissioners 
to lay it out vinder State authority, and Col. 
Warren carried the mail in a lumber wagon 
from Chicago to Naperville till the stage 
line was established. 

Trade between Galena and Chicago was 
then a coveted prize, and road places north 
of the Naper settlement soon began to take 



measures to straighten the line between the 
two places, in order to bring the travel by 
their own doors. 

St. Charles was the first to lead in this, 
and subscribed $2,000 to lay out and improve 
a road direct from their place to Chicago, 
with this end in view, and, in the summer of 
1836, a force of men and oxen were at work 
along the line all the way between Desplaines 
River and their place, plowing and scraping 
along the flat lands. This was the origin of 
what is now well known as the St. Charles 
road. 

Elgin did a similar thing, but little, if 
any, later, and established what has ever 
since been known as the Elgin road, passing 
through Bloomingdale, where Col. Hoit 
opened a tavern; thence east to the Desplaines, 
three miles north of the present site of May- 
wood, where Mr. Sherman kept tavern; 
thence to the old Whisky Point road run- 
ning northwest from Chicago, connecting with 
it at the present site of Jefferson, in Cook 
County. The old Indian trail that went from 
the western extremity of Lake Erie to what 
is now Rock Island was a well-known path 
in the early days, and from where it in- 
tersected the Illinois and Indiana State line, 
a road was laid out by State authority, pass- 
ing thence through Lockport, Naperville, 
Warrenville, Dundee on Fox River, McHenry, 
and thence to the Wisconsin line, near Nip- 
issing Creek. Col. Warren was one of the 
Commissioners to lay it out. 

The first stage line that ever ran through 
Du Page County was Templeton's line of 
stages from Chicago to Galena. This line 
first went through Naperville and Dixon, but 
subsequently changed its route, when Frink 
& Walker bought out Templeton, in 1838, 
and lines were established from Chicago to 
Galena via Bloomingdale; Chicago to St. 
Charles by the St. Charles road; and Chica- 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



151 



go to Naperville, Aurora and Ottawa. These 
three lines continued to pass through Du 
Page County, all of which carried the mail, 
till railroads were built, supplanting them. 
During the winter months, the Government 
at first suspended the mail to Galena, as it 
involved too much risk. 

GALENA & CHICAGO UNION RAILROAD. 

The following is a history of the Galena 
& Chicago Union Railroad, now the Chicago 
& North- Western Railroad: 

This road was first chartered January 16, 
1836, which was two years before Chicago 
had been chartered as a city, and it enjoys 
the distinction of being her first railroad. 
Its primary interest was to advance the price 
of real estate, and thereby promote the pros- 
perity of Chicago, which was then a village 
of 3,820 inhabitants, with room enough to 
grow larger. The capital stock of the rail- 
road company was $100,000, with power to 
increase it to $1,000,000. It was optional 
with the company to run the road either with 
horse or steam power. William Bennett, 
Thomas Druinmond, J. C. Goodhue, Peter 
Semple, John B. Turner and J. B. Thomp- 
son, Jr., were authorized to receive subscrip- 
tions to the stock. By the conditions of their 
charter, the company were obligated to com- 
mence work on the road within three years, 
and within this time the questionable enter- 
prise was undertaken. 

The first problem was how to get a found- 
ation through the spongy slough that inter- 
vened between the then mushroom town of 
Chicago and terra firma, on the ridge now 
occupied by Oak Park. It was then deemed 
impossible to find bottom in these shaky 
lands, and piles were resorted to, with lon- 
gitudinal stringers, to secure support from 
one to another. Thus the work began along 
Madison street, but was soon abandoned 



as premature, and no farther attempts to 
prosecute it were made till 1846, when 
William B. Ogden, John B. Turner and 
Stephen F. Gale purchased the charter of 
Messrs. Townsend & Mather, of New York, 
who, up to this time, held it, with the assets 
of the company. Ten thousand dollars in 
stock was to be paid down, and $10,000 on its 
completion to Fox River. A preliminary 
survey was made, and the work put in charge 
of Richard P. Morgan, a gentleman from 
Boston, who had earned a reputation for rail- 
road building in Massachusetts. 

The next year, on the 5th of April, a Board 
of Directors was appointed, and books were 
soon opened for subscription to the stock. 

Here fresh difficulties came up. Many 
thought the road would injure the retail 
trade of Chicago (which was all she then 
had, by facilitating the transportation of 
goods to country merchants, and the latter 
feared their trade would suffer such quick 
and easy access to Chicago as the road would 
give to the farmers Despite these difficul- 
ties, through the efforts of Benjamin W. 
Raymond and John B. Turner, in their suc- 
cess in negotiating loans in New York, and 
the reluctant home subscriptions to the stock, 
the road was finally completed to Harlem, 
ten miles from Chicago, December 30, 1848, 
to which place its rickety old second-hand en- 
gine and. cars ran, on a slipshod foundation 
of wooden stringers, faced with bar iron. 

During the autumn of the same year, its 
track was laid to Elgin, and the cars were 
running to the place January 'J3, 1850, for 
which the company owe a lasting obligation 
to Edward W. Brewster, now a citizen of 
Wheaton. He was then living on his farm, 
at the Little Woods three miles below Elgin, 
and he not only gave the company the right 
of way through his land, but gave them lib- 
erty to cut ties from his grove, without which 



152 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



privilege the road could not have been fin- 
ished before another summer, for navigation 
was about to close, and ties could not have 
been procured from any other source. " One 
good turn deserves another." So Mr. Brew- 
ster gave the company the necessary ground 
for grading the road when filling was want- 
ed, but on conditions that he and his family 
should ride free on the road as long as he 
lived. Little did they then know what they 
were bargaining for. Mr. Brewster still lives, 
though ninety years old, and when he comes 
for his annual pass, the company pleasantly 
tell him, " Yes, Father Brewster, we are will- 
ing to carry you as long as you live, but we 
did not expect you were going to live so 
long." 

Out of this humble beginning, this com- 
pany has grown into gigantic proportions, 
co-equal with the increase of wealth in Ihe 
country through which it and its various di- 
visions pass. These are the Galena Division, 
313.14 miles; Iowa Division, 622.53 miles; 
Northern Iowa Division, 292.43 miles; Wis- 
consin Division, 555.2(5 miles; Peninsular 
Division, 290.10 miles; Madison Division, 
461.79 miles; Winona & St. Peter's Railroad 
and Branch, 406.10 miles; Dakota Division* 
342.99 miles; total, 3,284.54 miles. 

Lines under construction : Volga to Ab- 
beyville, Dakota, 24.50; Watertown, D. T., 
to Redfield, 65; Sioux Rapids to Ireton, 
Iowa, 68 ; Narenta to Felch Mountains, North- 
ern Michigan, 36.40; total miles under con- 
struction, 193.96; grand total, 3,478.44. 

This company achieved its first success 
partly in Du Page County, and through its 
center, on this road, passes much freight from 
the Pacific Coast to Europe. Its entrance 
into the business heart of Chicago is direct 
and without detention, affording its business 
men easy access to rural homes in Du Page 
County, the eastern portions of which its 



fast trains reach in forty-five minutes, the 
central portions in fifty-eight minutes, and 
the western portions in one hour and fifteen 
minutes, thereby bringing the towns of this 
county within as quick time to the business 
center of Chicago as the remote but already 
thickly settled streets in the outskirts of this 
city, to and from which the horse cars are 
uncomfoitably crowded constantly, and it is 
an unsolved problem why the thousands who 
have already availed themselves of these con- 
ditions to secure rural luxuries are not mul- 
tiplied, till the whole line of the road is a 
continuous village. This would quickly be 
the case if every citizen of Chicago knew by 
experience the advantages of life among the 
gardens. 

CHICAGO, BURLINGTON & QUINCY RAILROAD. 

The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad 
passes through the southern tier of towns in 
Du Page County, affording facilities for easy 
access to Chicago, and offering good induce- 
ments for business men to make quiet homes 
along its line. The first beginning or nu- 
cleus of this road was the Aurora Branch 
Railroad, a line of road constructed in pur- 
suance of an act of the General Assembly of 
the State of Illinois, approved February 12, 
1849. 

The Aurora Branch Railroad extended from 
Aurora, Kane County, about thirteen miles to 
a point on the Galena & Chicago Union Rail- 
road, now named Turner Junction. The first 
locomotive was purchased February 20, 1852. 

The original charter was amended June 22, 
1852, and the name of the company changed 
to the Chicago & Aurora Railroad Company. 
On January 26, 1853, the charter was again 
amended, and the name of the company be- 
came the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Rail- 
road Company, a name formally accepted by 
the stockholders February 14, 1855. 




^fc^ks^S 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



155 



At a meeting of the Board of Directors 
held February 11, 1862, an act of the Gen- 
eral Assembly, authorizing the construction 
of a branch from Aurora to Chicago, by way 
of the village of Naperville, was formally ac- 
cepted by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 
Railroad Company. At the annual meeting 
of the stockholders held June 20, 1862, it 
was resolved to authorize the building of the 
road from Aurora to Chicago. This road was 
completed in 1864, at which time it only went 
to the Mississippi River, but now Northern 
Missouri, the State of Kansas, Southern Iowa 
and Southern Nebraska are directly on its 
lines, and besides these, it claims a share in 
the Colorado and Pacific trade. It had 2,- 
924 miles of railroad in operation January 
1. 1882. 

CHICAGO & PACIFIC RAILROAD. 

The Chicago & Pacific Railroad was organ- 
ized by R. M. Hough in December, 1877. 
The charter bears date previous to 1878, since 
which time the railroad was built, under the 
supervision of R. M. Hough, who was Pres- 
ident of the road. The Directors of the road 
were Thomas S. Dobson (who was also Vice 
President), Walter Pearce, John L. "Wilcox, 
George S. Bowen, George Young and Will- 
iam Howard. John L. Wilson was Solicitor, 
and William T. Hewes, Secretary. Fifteen 
thousand dollars was paid to William How- 
ard for the charter. An ordinance was 
passed in the Council to give the right of 
way for the road into Chicago in May, 1872. 
In June following, work was commenced on 
the road, and it was finished to Elgin in the 
summer of 1873. This road is now owned 
by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Rail- 
road. 

DU PAGE COUNTY BIBLE SOCIETY. 

In giving a history of this society, we are 
somewhat embarrassed, as we find no record 
of its first meeting. At whose suggestion it 



was called, in what month it was held, by 
whom the meeting was called to order, or 
who participated in its organization, we are 
not informed; we are assured, however, that 
the first meeting was held in Naperville. 
The minutes of the first anniversary indicate 
that Rev. John H. Prentiss was the first Pres- 
ident, and leave us to infer who were his as- 
sociates in the organization: 

Naperville, February 5, 1841. 
The society met at the office of Esquire Hosmer. 
and was opened with prayer by Rev. John H. Pren- 
tiss, President. The annual meeting having failed, 
the following were appointed officers of the society 
for the ensuing year, viz.: Rev. Orange Lyman, 
President; Rev. Caleb Lamb, Hart L. Cobb, E. 
Thayer, Eli Nosheram and T. Paxton, Vice Presi- 
dents; John H. Prentiss, Secretary; Aylmer Keith, 
Treasurer; Lewis Ellsworth, Depository; J. H. 
Prentiss, A. Keith, Pomeroy Goodrich, Isaac Clark 
and Alexander Underwood, Executive Committee. 
At the second annual meeting the following resolu- 
tion was passed: "Resolved, That the first article of 
the constitution be so altered that the name of the 
society shall be the Du Page County Bible Society," 
thereby indicating that it formerly had a local name. 
At this meeting, we find the first report of the 
Treasurer, as follows: " There is now in the treas- 
ury $8 cash, and, as far as can be ascertained, $15.80 
worth of books." In 1843, the Treasurer reported 
eight Bibles and three Testaments on hand, valued at 
$11.72, also cash $8 ($3 of which is counterfeit). 
We may charitably hope this spurious money found 
its way into the Lord's treasury by mistake. The 
first fifteen years, the society held its annual meet- 
ings at Naperville; the sixteenth anniversary at 
"Wheaton Station," from thence it went to Bloom- 
ingdale, returning by the way of Danby to Wheaton. 
After visiting Lombard and Prospect Park, called 
again at Wheaton on its way to Turner Junction, 
Elmhurst being the next stopping place, from which 
we return to Naperville to greet our old friends of 
forty years ago; old friends, did we say? Were we 
to call the roll of those who, forty years ago were 
active in Bible cause, how few would respond ! 
Opposite the names of nearly all we write gone — 
dead. The memories of other years crowd upon us. 
The recollection of, and association with, many now 
living, as well as those gone before, during a resi- 
dence of forty-four years in the county, is i>li:isant. 



156 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



We write their history to-day, who will write ours 
forty years hence? 

Eleven venerable men have presided over the de- 
liberations of the society, and eight Secretaries 
recorded its doings. 

We are unable to give correctly the financial his- 
tory of the society, but, from the best sources at our 
command, it has received and disbursed at least 
$15,000, the smallest sum reported in any one 
year being $6.25, the largest $949.13. 

L. W. Mills, Secretary. 

REMOVAL OF THE COUNTY SEAT. 

As stated in foregoing pages, at the organ- 
ization of Du Page County it was anticipated 
to take in the three ranges of sections on its 
southern limit, but this plan miscarried, and 
left Naperville at the extreme southern verge 
of the county, which had the effect to jeop- 
ardize her prerogative, and ultimately to 
disinherit her from a right that she, by vir- 
tue of age, numbers and wealth, tenaciously 
claimed, which was to be the seat of justice 
of the county. Albeit her remoteness from 
the center of the county afforded a pretext 
for other ambitions to come to the front and 
assert their claims. 

This rivalry began to take legal action in 
the winter of 1857, when the Legislature of 
the State passed an act authorizing an elec- 
tion to be held on the first Monday of May, 
the same year, to decide the question of the 
removal of the county seat to Wheaton. 

The election was held, but it went against 
removal, setting the matter at rest for ten 
years, when, through the Wheaten interest, 
the Legislature again authorized an election 
for the same purpose. It was held in June, 
1808, and this time gave a small majority 
for removal — not without the "inside grip" 
(best known by politicians) being practiced 
on both sides to their utmost limit. They 
made a very interesting polemic out of the 
campaign, which must ever stand as a monu- 
ment of Du Page County grit, but both sides > 



were so nearly matched in handling their 
forces that neither gained any advantage, and 
it was the few extra votes that gave Wheaton 
the victory, and not her superior skill. 

After the election, it was many months 
before the court confirmed the decision; this 
done, the Board of Supervisors selected a site 
for the court house, which was donated to 
the county, and the building erected that now 
convenes the court sessions and places crimi- 
nals on the proper side of iron grates. The 
records were removed early one winter morn- 
ing, and, unfortunately, a few of them were 
lost, but not any portion of them that are es- 
sential to show a good chain of title to lands. 
In the summer of 1879, a fire-proof building 
was erected on the north side of the court 
house grounds, with vault and offices for 
Clerks and Treasurer. 

DU PAGE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL 
SOCIETY. 

Fairs had their origin as far back as the first 
Olympiad, 600 years B. O, when kings ran 
foot races with "newsboys." whose occupa- 
tions of turning an honest penny, selling the 
Naperville Clarion or the Wheaton Illinoisian, 
was no bar to their social equality with a 
crowned head, at least at the Olympic games. 
When both were stripped, perhaps the "news 
boy " could show the best muscle, and that was 
what counted. These were exhibitions of 
strength, but nowadays men plume them- 
selves more on a big pumpkin and on the 
muscle of their horses, so they always had a 
race-course for the latter to ventilate his fine 
points on and a place in which to show the 
pumpkins, and then in these days of female 
culture, the best room in the building is al- 
lotted to the display of needle work and 
crayon work of the girls, and sometimes a 
few loaves of bread from a matronly hand. 
Du Page County, animated with a laudable 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



157 



ambition to stimulate her industries and in- 
genuity, took steps in this direction by call- 
ing a public meeting at Naperville, October 
19, 1853, of which E. O. Hills, of Blooming- 
dale, was Chairman, and James G. Wright, of 
Naperville, Secretary. The society was or- 
ganized with a constitution and by-laws, with 
183 members, Lewis Ellsworth, President; J. 
G. Wright, Secretary. The first fair was 
held at Naperville October 11 and 12, 1851. 
The third annual fair was held at Wheaton 
September 17 and 18, 1856. A charter was 
obtained in February, 1857, soon after which 
fifteen acres of ground were donated to the 
society by J. C. and W. L. Wheaton, for a 
permanent place for holding their fairs. By 
the conditions of the donation, the grounds 
are to revert back to the original owners if 
the society neglects to hold their fairs for 
three successive years. Fairs have been held 
each year at the place ever since, with a good 
showing of the best things in the county. 
Mr. Albert D. Kelly, the present Secretary, 
furnished the above statistics for the work. 

TELEPHONE LINES. 

Telephone lines were established Septem- 
ber 1, 1882, between Chicago, Austin, May- 
wood, Elmhurst, Lombard, Wheaton, Elgin, 
St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia, Aurora, Joliet, 
Lockport and Summit. The intermediate 
towns will be connected as soon as practicable, 
and ti_e line is to be extended to Rock ford 
soon. It would be premature to state at this 
time any limit to the extension of the line. 
The rates now are '25 cents for five minutes' 
conversation. L. C. Brown, Agent. 

GEOLOGY OF DU PAGE COUNTY.* 

The following diagram shows the order 
and thickness of the several divisions which 
form the geological system of Illinois: 

♦Contributed by C. D. Wilber, LL.D. 



Quaternary. 



Tertiary. 



Carboniferous . 



Prairie surface. 
Alluvium and Drift. 



Tertiary. 







900 ft. 


Upper, 
Middle 

and 

Lower 

Coal measures. 


300 ft. 


Millstone Grit. 


250 fc. 


Chester Limestone. 


100 ft. 


Ferruginous Sandstone. 



Limestone ^ "^ '*• ! ^*' ^ ou ' 8 or Warsaw Limestone 



Keokuk Limestone. 



Burliugton Limestone. 



100 ft. 



Upper 
Silurian. 



Lower 

Silurian. 



40 ft. 



Kinderhook Group. 



Hamilton Group. 



50 ft. 



Oriskany Sandstone. 



Niagara Limestone. 



100 ft. Hudson River Group. 



Galena or Trenton Limestone. 



150 ft. 



St. Peter's Sandstone. 



Calciferous Sandstone. 



158 



HISTOKY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



The position occupied by Du Page and ad- 
jacent counties is the Niagara division of the 
Upper Silurian. This has been determined 
by the examination of the various quarries 
and from outcrops of rock formation on the 
Du Page River, and also by several artesian 
borings, which have penetrated more than 
one thousand feet. In this division are 
found the quarries of Lemont and Joliet, 
from which are annually shipped vast quan- 
tities of dimension stone and building ma- 
terial. Below it from 700 to 800 feet is 
found the St. Peter's sandstone, which con- 
tains the water supply of the great system of 
artesian wells, of which about one hundred 
are already in active operation in Northern 
Illinois. 

The county of Du Page, it will be seen, 
occupies both extremes of the geological 
series, viz., the Silurian system at the bottom 
and the prairie system at the top. The pres- 
ent article being limited to a few pages, will 
be mainly devoted to a consideration of the 
unfailing, omnipresent question, viz. , "What 
is the Origin of the Prairies ? ' ' 

From observation on the smaller lakes and 
lakelets in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and 
Ohio, Prof. Leo Lesquereux saw, as he 
thought, the outline of a theory which would 
account for the present prairie system. 

After a brief view of the soils of these dry 
lakes, and the tree growths on the margin, he 
says: From these facts, no other conclusion 
can be taken than this: That all the prairies 
of the Mississippi Valley have been formed 
by the slow process of sheets of water of 
various extent, first transformed into swamps, 
and by and by drained and dried. The high 
and rolling prairies, the prairies around the 
lakes, those of the bottoms along the rivers 
are all the result of the same cause, and form 
a whole and indivisable system. 

But since lake bottoms are generally level, 



or present a general concavity of surface, and 
since prairies afford every variety of topog- 
raphy of rolls, hills, slopes, plains, divides, 
inclines, draws, ravines, terraces, bottoms, 
etc. . it seemed quite difficult at the outset to 
meet these formidable difficulties. But the 
heroic Lesquereux sweeps them all away with 
a pen stroke. 

"I believe," says he, "that though undu- 
lated the surface of the prairies may be now, 
as it has been originally horizontal enough 
to form shallow lakes, and then swamps like 
those which now cover some parts along the 
shores of Lake Erie, Lake Michigan, etc. I 
have followed for whole days the sloughs of 
the prairies, and have seen them constantly 
passing lower and well-marked channels, or 
to the beds of rivers by the most tortuous 
circuits, in a manner comparable to the me- 
anderings of some creeks in nearly horizontal 
valleys. Indeed, the only difference is that 
in the high prairies there is not a definite 
bed, but a series of beds extending, narrow- 
ing, winding in many ways. This explana- 
tion seems so natural that I could not under- 
stand how high prairies could be perfectly 
horizontal." 

No person ever appeared more charmed 
with his favorite idea than the bold Lesque- 
reux with his pet theory for the origin of the 
prairies. 

" The level of the low prairies being scarce- 
ly above that of the lakes, their surface after 
an overflow becomes dry by percolation and 
evaporation, rather than by true drainage. 
But wherever the rivers have cut deeper chan- 
nels, the drainage has constantly taken placo 
toward these deep channels, and the water, 
though its movements may be very slow, fur- 
rows the surface in its tortuous meanderings, 
and from this results that irregular, wavy con- 
formation, generally and appropriately called 
rolling prairie." 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



159 



For illustration of his theory, Prof. Lesque- 
reux refers to the prairie soil of Illinois: 

"Its thickness is first to be considered; it 
varies from one to four feet, and even more 
How has been produced this enormous coat- 
ing of black mold which covers the clay sub- 
soil ? and, also, how has this subsoil been 
produced, if not under the influence and ac- 
tion of water? Complete oxidation of vege- 
table remains has never resulted in the keep- 
ing of such a peculiar thick compound as is 
the soil of the prairies. We must then con- 
sider this prairie soil as formed under pecu- 
liar chemical action by a slow oxidation or 
decomposition of vegetable matter, retarded 
in its action by water, in preventing the free 
access of oxygen, as in formation of peat. 
This (prairie) soil, then, as we have said, is 
half peat and half humus." 

Prof. Whitney, formerly State Geologist of 
California, writing of the formation of prai- 
ries, considers the absence of trees caused by 
the fineness of the soil, and partly by the ac- 
cumulation in the bottoms of immense lakes 
of a sediment of almost impalpable fineness 
under certain conditions. 

The one great fault with these theories is, 
that they are hasty and indiscriminate, when 
a larger view would include all that these 
theorists have stated, without shutting us up 
to narrow requirements. We can take in all 
that Prof. Lesquereux says, viz., that the 
great prairie system has been covered with 
water, and at the same time understood that 
water action is not, or was not even the re- 
motest cause of the unwooded districts. 
The prairies may come after the existence 
and subsidence of lakes, but they come 
simply in the order of events, and not as a 
consequence of water. There is nothing in 
the water or primitive lake theory that does 
not apply equally to the wooded regions of 
any country. 



Referring to Lesquereux' s theory, and 
Whitney's, Prof. Winchell says: " The fatal 
objection to this theory, and all the theories 
which look to the physical or chemical con- 
dition of the soil for an explanation of the 
treeless character of the prairies, is discovered 
in the fact that trees will grow when once 
introduced." 

The numerous lakes of Iowa, Illinois, Wis- 
consin and Michigan are mostly shallow, cov- 
ering often areas five miles by ten or fifteen. 
They have a dark sediment bottom, generally 
upon clay, which, being impervious, like 
leather, will for ages maintain these bodies 
of fresh water as they are. In some cases of 
higher altitude, with smaller lakes, the clay 
can be punctured, and after the escape of 
water the black sediment becomes good soil. 
Or the lake may be drained by cutting down 
its lower edge with a deep ditch. It is ob- 
vious that the concave-shaped clay substratum 
caused the lake, and it appears that the fresh 
water acted as a medium through which the 
sediments, no matter how obtained, were pre- 
cipitated; but directly the lake is drained the 
soil is ready to raise crops of grains, grasses 
or trees — but it does not become a prairie. 
West of the Missouri River, and, as far as 
known, west of the Mississippi River, in Ne- 
braska and Kansas, the brown-colored top soil 
is not a sediment of, but instead, the same 
material as the sub-soil, whether loess or 
drift, having the same chemical elements, but 
colored by successive years of decay of 
grasses. Whether these grasses, year after 
year, were burned or disappeared by the 
slower process of oxidation, they were cer- 
tain to contribute both the dark or humus 
color, besides a certain amount of material 
not being sediment in any sense. We are 
agreeably relieved from introducing the need- 
less miracle of innumerable lakes as prairie 
antecedents. 



160 



HISTOBY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



The evidence of prairie origin deduced from 
the disappearance of lakes, large or small, is 
therefore rejected as not sufficient. The 
lake patches with subsequent drainage, are 
simply facts by themselves, but not in any 
way related to the origin of the vast un- 
wooded regions of North America. 

The proportion of prairie to forest is so 
great in the Western States and Territories 
as to reverse the order of the inquiry. It 
seems here more proper to inquire, Why have 
we woodland and grove and densely timbered 
tracts in the Canadas and Eastern States, in- 
stead of these " unshorn fields, sublime and 
beautiful, for which the speech of Eugland 
has no name?" 

This leads to another inquiry, viz., Which 
is the normal condition of the surface; which 
has priority, prairie or woods? Are not 
prairies, and pampas, and steppes, and vast 
unwooded areas quite as natural as forest- 
covered plains and hills? Have we not a 
problem quite as intricate in explaining the 
existence and permanence of forests as in pre- 
senting a theory which explains their ab- 
sence ? 

Individual estimates of the comparative 
value of wooded and prairie regions would 
vary as to the tastes or traditions of men; 
but the general summary of an impartial 
census leaves no room for debate on the su- 
perior advantages of prairie surfaces. The 
center of empire makes its way westward 
over these natural meadows more rapidly than 
through dense forests. The unprecedented 
advance in the United States since the year 
1840, in political power, wealth and popula- 
tion, is due, mainly, to the prairie system of 
the Western and Northwestern States and 
Territories. 

The landed estate of Illinois is worth 
$1,000,000,000 in forty years, is equal to 
that of Ohio in nearly eighty years, and 



an average prairie county in the interior of 
Nebraska in twelve years attains the wealth 
and population of one in the woods of Ohio, 
of equal size, with seventy-five years of toil. 
After searching all that is known upon the 
subject, we may see that both prairie and 
forset are natural conditions, and that it is 
in the power of man to make or unmake, to 
have either surface, or to combine the two in 
any manner united to his use or caprice. It 
does not matter, therefore, whether grassy 
plains or boundless forests have priority as 
the primitive condition. It would easily ap- 
pear from both geologic and human history, 
that the two orders of surface have alternate- 
ly held possession, and that the present prai- 
ries and timbered areas, wholly, or in part, 
were once covered with forests, and vice 
versa. To that whenever we raise the ques- 
tion of priority, we are at once carried into 
the realm of geologic history, whose faint 
outline can be seen on the shores of the old 
Silurian Sea, where the first fronds of vege- 
table life raised their tiny forms, suited to 
the earliest condition of light, air and moist- 
ure consistent with life upon the planet. 
But the two great orders of vegetable life, 
viz., trees and grasses, are so diverse in mode 
of growth, in form and in degree of vital 
force that we may naturally took in the di- 
rection of this diversity for causes that shall 
logicallyjlead us toward a satisfactory expla- 
nation. 

The superior vital force of grass growths, 
aided by favorable conditions, enables them 
to exclude timber growths, except where pro- 
tected by natural barriers. The constant and 
free action of these l-elative forces maintains 
the present boundary between prairie and 
timber areas. Whenever these forces are in- 
constant, or irregular, or suspended by human 
agencies, the relative areas of each are varied 
or changed. 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



161 



Grass is called " an annual " plant, yet in 
an enlarged sense it is perennial. There is 
more vitality in the rhizoma or roots of grass, 
than in the oak or palm. Whatever may de- 
stroy a tree or shrub brings no harm to grass. 
An ocean of flame may sweep over the prairie 
and consume every living thing, and leave 
the plain a parched and desolate waste, yet 
in a month the grass is green over the entire 
area, but the trees are dead. What required 
ten, twenty or a hundred years to accumulate 
as forest or grove, can be replaced only by the 
same number of years, while grass will come 
to its best estate in the summer time of every 
year. I offer this primal and fundamental 
relation between grasses and trees, as the 
present and procuring cause in a theory to 
explain, philosophically, the origin of the 
prairies: 

•■ Next in importance to the Divine profu- 
sion of water, light and air, those three great 
physical facts which render existence possible, 
may be reckoned the universal beneficence of 
grass. Exaggerated by tropical heats and 
vapors to the gigantic cane congested with its 
saccharine secretion, or dwarfed by polar rig- 
ors to the fibrous hair of Northern solitudes, 
embracing between these extremes the maize, 
with its resolute pennons, the rice plant of 
Southern swamps, the wheat, rye, barley, oats 
and other cereals, no less than the humbler 
verdure of the hillside, pasture and prairie 
in the temperate zone, grass is the most wide- 
ly distributed to all vegetable beings, and is 
at once the type of our life and the emblem 
of our mortality. Lying in the sunshine 
among the buttercups and dandelions of May, 
scarcely higher in intelligence than the mi- 
nute tenants of the mimic wilderness, our 
earliest recollections are of grass; and when 
the fitful fever is ended, and the foolish 
wrangle of the market and forum is closed, 
grass heals over the scar which our descent 



into the bosom of the earth has made, and 
becomes the blanket of the dead. 

" Grass is the forgiveness of nature — her 
constant benediction. Fields trampled with 
battle, saturated with blood, turn with the 
ruts of cannon, grow green again with grass, 
and carnage is forgotten. Streets abandoned 
by traffic become grass grown like rural lanes, 
and are obliterated. Forests decay, harvests 
perish, flowers vanish, but grass is immortal. 
Beleaguered by the sullen hosts of winter, it 
withdraws into the impregnable fortress of 
its subterranean vitality, and emerges upon 
the first solicitation of spring. Sown by the 
winds, by wandering birds, propagated by 
the subtle horticulture of the elements, which 
are its ministers and servants, it softens the 
rude outline of the world. Its tenacious 
fibers hold the earth in its place, and prevent 
its soluble components from washing into the 
wasting sea. It invades the solitude of de- 
serts, climbs the inaccessible slopes and for- 
bidden pinnacles of mountains, modifies 
climates, and determines the history, char- 
acter and destiny of nations. Unobtrusive 
and patient, it has immortal vigor and ag- 
gression. Banished from the thoroughfare 
and the field, it bides its time to return, and 
when vigilance is relaxed, or the dynasty has 
perished, it silently resumes the throne from 
which it has been expelled, but which it 
never abdicates. It bears no blazonry of 
bloom to charm the senses with fragrance or 
splendor, but its homely hue is more en- 
chanting than the lily or the rose. It yields 
no fruit in earth or air. and yet should its 
harvest fail for a single year, famine would 
depopulate the world." 

The forest, however, in its strife for the 
mastery or possession has its peculiar advan- 
tages. From its deep shades it excludes the 
grasses. The lack of light and warmth in 
the twilight of vast forests — "the boundless 



162 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



contiguity of shade " — partly paralyzes vege- 
table growth of all kinds, and nearly obliter- 
ates all traces of grass. The shrubs and un- 
dergrowth are dwarfed into insignificance, 
and appear unwelcome, like lank beggars in 
a lordly court. 

Grown trees, however, with their spreading 
branches, bearing coronals of leaves, yearly 
increase in this manner their own bulk, and 
at the same time deepen the shade that de- 
prives the shrub or sapling and grass of their 
bread of life. By this regime the forest at- 
tains its majesty, and maintains its regal 
splendor for centuries. By this economy, 
with its steady bracing and blending of 
woody fiber, the tree trunk lengthens towards 
the sun, increases in strength and beauty, 
and contributes to man his house on land and 
his ship at sea. On the border, between the 
forest and plain, both grasses and trees show 
the decimating effect of antagonism in the 
struggle for existence. Trees of high growth 
and rank never grow into columns; but, with 
branches near the ground, dwindle into groves 
in bush forms. Among them, but with 
abated force, the grasses spread, and afford 
only tolerable pasture. It is evidently a 
drawn battle, or an attempt to compromise 
under a flag of truce. The effect of annual 
fires over prairie areas is nearly uniform. 
It is one of the constant forces, varying, of 



course, in direction and power with the wind, 
but passing over, year after year, nearly the 
same areas, and meeting the same barriers to 
stay its progress, thus keeping the same bor- 
der line between the two kingdoms. These 
fires may have originated ages ago, from the 
ordinary lightning, or what is more probable, 
they were caused by the same means that now 
maintain them, viz., human agency. From 
time immemorial, the Indians have, generally 
in the autumn of each year, fired the prairie 
or grass plains, producing thereby that pecu- 
liar phenomena called Indian summer. By 
these annual fires, they secure two results, 
viz. , first, the game is driven to the timber, 
where it can be more easily taken; and sec- 
ond, the grasses being burned, the bare 
prairie affords free vision against invasion, 
and also facilitates speed, whether for assault 
or retreat. Compelled thus by a twofold ne- 
cessity to annually burn the prairies, it is 
easy to see that they must have maintained 
for ages the areas that were fixed by natural 
barriers in the indefinite past — established 
with no prospect- of change, except by a 
change of policy under a different race of 
men. In this case the successful invaders of 
the present vast population of farmers must 
speedily revolutionize the Indian policy and 
the former boundaries between prairies and 
groves. 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



163 



CHAPTER VIII. 



MILTON TOWNSHIP — ITS FIRST SETTLERS — WHEATON — HOW IT RECEIVED ITS NAME — THE 
GALENA & CHICAGO UNION RAILROAD— CHURCHES OF WHEATON— PIONEER SCHOOL- 
STACY'S CORNERS— BABCOCK GROVE— PROSPECT PARK— ITS CHURCHES. 



TWO seafaring men, who had risen from 
cabin boys to become masters of vessels 
by time they had attained manhood, formed 
a determination to relinquish the calling to 
which they had been trained, and strike out 
a new course in life. These men were the 
two Naper brother of whom much has been 
said in previous pages. The new plan con- 
templated the formingof a colony to establish 
itself and grow up with the country some- 
where in the West to which the immense im- 
migration was tending that had loaded their 
vessels westward bound to their utmost ca- 
pacity for the years that they had been sail- 
ors and Captains. The names of two of tbe 
men who joined their colony are Lyman But- 
teriield and Henry T. W T ilson. The vessel 
started from Ashtabula, Ohio, in June, 1831, 
and arrived at Chicago in July. From thence 
the adventurers made their way across the 
spongy flats that then intervened between the 
place and the Desplaines River, and kept on 
to the west till their destination was reached, 
which was the spot where Naperville now 
stands. Here Mr. Butterfield and Mr. Wil- 
son remained a short time, witnessed the 
Black Hawk scare, and the next year took up 
claims a few miles north of the parent set- 
tlement — Naperville. Mr. Buttertield's claim 
was for a half-section of land lying wholly in 
the present township of Milton, in its south- 
eastern corner. Mr. Wilson's claim, made at 
the same time, happened to be where the 
three townships — Lisle, Winfield and Milton 



— corner together. These two men were the 
true pioneers of Milton Township, just half 
a century ago last June, the time of writing 
this chapter being August, 1832. Mr. But- 
terfield died a few years ago, but Mr. Wilson 
still walks the streets of WTieaton, and stal- 
wart young men, whose fathers he saw in 
their swaddling clothes, now help the old 
man up and steady his tottering footsteps 
down the uneven sidewalks of WTieaton, as 
he goes for the mail or after a newspaper to 
see what is going on in a world of excitement 
of which he has beheld three full generations. 
His grip on life is still tenacious as it is 
chronic. As this goes to press, news comes 
that Mr. W 7 ilson's sands of life are run out 
almost to the last grain. 

Ralph and Morgan Babcock came to the 
place since called Babcock's Grove, and made 
claims in 1833 of nearly the whole grove, 
with a view of parceling it out to their friends 
who were soon to follow. 

The next year (1834), Deacon Winslow 
Churchill, with his sons — Seth, Winslow, Jr., 
and Hiram — came to the place and made 
claims — all in what is now Milton, except 
that of Winslow, Jr., which was on the 
ground on which the northern part of the 
village of Lombard, in York, now stands. 
W 7 ith the Churchills also came the wife of 
Morgan Babcock, John D. Ackerman and 
family and Seth Churchill and family. All 
these came from Onondaga County, N. Y., 
arriving at Chicago on the schooner La 



164 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Grange, June 4, 1834; here they procured 
teams, and, loading their household goods, 
started over the prairies, stopping the first 
night, at Scott's tavern, where Lyons now is, 
and the next night at Parson's, where Lisle 
now is; thence over the trackless prairie 
northwardly, to the grove where their borne had 
been secured to them the year before by a few 
blazes made on trees in the grove and a few 
stakes driven in the prairie by Mr. Babcock. 
In 1835, Moses Stacy and his wife came 
from Windham County, Vt. , via Buffalo to 
Detroit, by steamer, thence by schooner to 
Chicago; thence, with a hired team, they 
started for Hennepin, 111., their original des- 
tination, but, on their arrival at Ottawa, they 
found so many cases of malarial fever that 
they retraced their steps in pursuit of a more 
salubrious location to the north. They found 
it "he last of August, 1858, at the high spot 
of land to which their name has been given — 
Stacy's Corners — and here Mrs. Stacy and 
one of her sons still live on this spot so beau- 
tifully adorned by generous nature, on the top- 
most of those gravelly ridges that rise in ter- 
races one above another till it crowns the whole 
with a broad plateau, extending indefinitely 
to the north. Here they built a small cabin. 
14x16, with a puncheon floor and a roof of 
split logs, the lower layers of which were 
channeled so as to catch the drainage from 
the upper ones. Soon after it was built, an oc- 
casional traveler called at night for enter- 
tainment. It would not do to turn him 
adrift, for he had no other refuge. Thus be- 
gan this business of tavern-keeping, which 
grew on their hands till their premises were 
enlarged and rebuilt once and again, and 
still inadequate to supply the demand as the 
country settled to the West, and Stacey's 
Corners gave promise of a central nucleus of 
a metropolitan character, and the name of 
Du Page Center was given it. 



David Christian settled at the place in 
1837, and built a frame house, the first in 
the new settlement. In a few years it had 
two good stores, two blacksmith shops, a har- 
ness shop, a hame factory, a wagon shop and 
all the machinery of a town. 

Even Chicago came to the place to get 
their mechanics to make a dredge to clean 
the mud out of the Chicago River. But there 
was a limit to this prosperity. The laws of 
trade are inexorable and would follow the 
railroads, even from pleasing heights into 
valleys, and when the Galena & Chicago 
Union Railroad came through in 1849, many 
buildings were moved from the Corners to 
Danby, and all the business that had hither- 
to centered at the place. 

But let us return again to the good old 
days of 1835, when log schoolhouses were 
built for earnest children to study in, drawn 
thither by no sesthetic influences. One of 
these was built by subscription in 1835, at 
an opening in the north edge of the grove, 
on a small tributary of the East Fork. It is 
now a lonesome spot, away from the road, but 
was then vocal with young voices on week 
days, and hallowed with divine worship on 
Sundays, as all schoolhouses were in the early 
days. 

The first teacher in this house was Miss 
Maria Dudley, whose brother is now a promi- 
nent lawyer in Naperville. Rev. Pillsbury 
was the pioneer preacher in it, per order of 
Presiding Elder Clark, of the Du Page dis- 
trict, the same who had in June the previous 
year, come to the place to preach the funeral 
sermon of a young daughter of Deacon Wins- 
low Churchill — Amanda. There was no 
cemetery in which to deposit her remains, 
but she was buried on private grounds with 
solemnities all the more impressive, because 
where people are few and the face of nature 
is ample, the loss of a single individual 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



105 



leaves a broader chasm in the home circle 
and in the neighborhood. 

The same year, 1835, William D. Dodge, 
from Rutland County, Vt. , came to the settle- 
ment and made a claim adjoining Babcock's, 
his family arriving the following October. 
It was no small acquisition to the settlement, 
for he had four sons and nine daughters, all 
of whom settled at the piece. The names of 
the sons were N. Mason, Darwin D., W'illiam 
B. and J. S. It is not so necessary to name 
the girls, for they soon became identified by 
other names of a more masculine and less 
transient type, in which capacity they lent a 
hand in building up the country. 

Warren L. and Jesse C. Wheaton, Erastus 
Gary, Peter Crosby, S. H. Manchester, Al- 
vin Simmons, Peter Northrup, all came to this 
township soon afterward, and all of them 
are still active men, which would go to show 
that half a century in Milton Township had 
not tasked nature to her extreme limits, with- 
out counting how much wear and tear these 
gentlemen had before they came here with 
ripe growth in their limbs. These specimens, 
together with other evidences, go to show the 
healthfulness of the place. Its surface 
drainage is good, there being no extensive 
flat lands in the township, though a nar- 
row belt of low interval skirts the East 
Branch of the Du Page River that courses 
through the eastern tier of sections in this 
township. 

These low lands are not built on, but Berve 
for pasturage or meadow, being too spongy 
for cultivation. There are groves of good 
timber in the southwestern and central east- 
ern and northeastern portions of the town- 
ship, which have, even up to this day, large- 
ly furnished fuel for farmers and townsmen, 
besides much material for building, fencing, 
etc. The gravel banks along the railroad 
west of the Du Page are very valuable, and 



furnish the necessary material for graveling 
the railroad. 

Milton has eight school districts and as 
many good schoolhouses, two of which are 
graded. The number of persons between the 
ages of six and twenty in the town is 468. 

In the western part of the town, at Pleas- 
ant Hill, is a creamery that consumes 4,000 
pounds of milk, makes 120 pounds of butter 
and 350 pounds of cheese daily. The dairy 
business is on the increase in the town, 
owing, esjjecially, to the facilities which the 
railroad affords for sending milk to Chicago. 

THE MASTODON. 

To trace the history of this noble animal 
since the timbers of Noah's ark cringed be- 
neath his ponderous tread, would take us 
through many evolutions of nature ere his 
offspring found their way into Du Page 
County. That he finally chose his pasture 
here is an evidence that it was then as now a 
good grazing country, for he was an herb- 
eating animal. His teeth give evidence of 
that and further prove that if he did not find 
grass enough to till his capacious stomach, 
that he could crop the little twigs from the 
trees, or eat the trees themselves level to the 
ground, if they were young forest trees not 
over twenty feet high, for what were such 
saplings between teeth that weighed from 
two to six pounds each, twenty-four in num- 
ber. Some of them were fashioned like 
pruning- shears; his tusks were ten feet in 
length, ten inches in diameter at the base and 
weighed 200 pounds. These are the dimen- 
sions and weight of a pair of them found 
near Aurora a few years ago, while excavating 
for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Rail- 
road. Later in the fall of 1869, the bones of 
one fore leg, sixteen sections of vertebne, 
shoulder-blade and hip-bone of this extinct 
species were found on the land of Mr. Horace 



1G6 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Jane, two miles from Wkeaton. The prob- 
lem is, When did this animal leave his foot- 
prints on our soil? Lyell says that they be- 
came extinct many thousand years ago, but 
it is evident that he had not consulted Mr. 
Jayne, for he could have given him evdience 
that would have dispelled such a theory. 

Mr. Jayne says he found the bones in a 
comparatively recently filled-up basin of 
water, imbedded in murky accretions from its 
surrounding water-shed. Near the bones 
were small tree trunks still standing with 
their roots pierced into the solid soil below 
the black muck that covered and preserved 
them. This don't look like the work of 
"many thousand years,'' for this process of 
the tilling up of prairie ponds is still going 
on, and much of nature's handiwork in this 
direction has been done within the memory 
of our early settlers. No; we may conclude 
that not more than live centuries ago at 
most that herds of mastodons frisked about 
here like lambs in a June pasture. Perhaps 
they grazed the timber all down where the 
prairies are, and providentially left the groves 
for winter pasture. If this settles the ques- 
tion of the origin of the prairies, it will save 
archaeologists a good deal of hard study. 

HISTORY OF THE VILLAGE OF WHEAT0N. 

Amidst the ' ' banks and braes " of Wind- 
ham County, Conn., there grew up some note- 
worthy historical associations. The place 
was settled in 1686 by good old Puritan stock 
from Roxbury, Mass., whose influence is felt 
to-day in the social circles of Wheaton, though 
transmitted through not less than six genera- 
tions. From Pomfret, in that county, came 
the first settlers of Wheaton, whose courage 
and ambition may have been toned up to a 
good scale by the proximity of their birth- 
place to the cave where Gen. Putnam bearded 
the wolf in his lair and slew him, which was 



quite a feat for a young man not accustomed, 
like the old Romans, to play the gladiator. 
From near the spot where this event had 
transpired, Erastas Gary came to St. Joseph, 
Mich., in the autumn of 1831. Here he 
found a prosperous village, containing about 
twenty-five families, with sufficient attractions 
to determine him to remain for the winter to 
teach the town school and await what might 
turn up. The next spring, having determined 
to see what was on the other side of the lake, 
he started, April 1, 1832, with three compan- 
ions, in a dugout canoe for Chicago, which 
was then the usual method of private travel 
between the two places. Constant toiling at 
the oars along the southern shores of Lake 
Michigan, with two nights spent in camp 
thereon, brought the travelers to Chicago on 
the 3d, and here Mr. Gary only spent the 
night, for the place looked far less inviting 
than St. Joseph. " Westward ho!" was the 
watchword the next morning, and, after 
taking leave of his companions, he took up 
his march toward sunset and gained Law- 
ton's, on the Desplaines, at night, after a 
day of amphibious toil, sometimes for miles 
through water a foot deep. The next day, he 
reached Naperville, which was on the 5th. 
From thence he made his way northwardly, 
and took up a claim at first adjoining the 
claim of Mr. Butterfield, some years before 
the spot where Wheaton now is become his 
residence. 

That there would have been a village at or 
not far from where Wheaton now stands is 
certain in any event, but how it came to be 
located in this precise spot, and how it took 
its name, grew out of the following circum- 
stantial details. 

Warren L. Wheaton, whose limbs had 
gathered pith and whose fires of youth had 
been fanned to manhood's flame, around the 
old classic grounds of Pomfret (his birth- 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



167 



place), as well as Mr. Gary's, came to the 
Gary settlement June 1, 1837, to which E. 
Gary, his fellow-towDsman, had preceded 
him. Ever since the Black Hawk war, set- 
tlers had been actively employed in making 
claims, especially contiguous to the Naper 
settlement, and the lands where timber and 
prairie were conbined in desirable propor- 
tions, were all under the bonds of claims, 
which were sacred as deeds, at least till the 
land had come into market, and long enough 
thereafter to give the respective claimants a 
reasonable time to pay for them. 

The amount of land to which the Garys 
and Butterfields had laid claim was much 
larger than they wished for their own use, 
and had designedly been made so for the 
purpose of letting their friends and old fel- 
low-citizens from Pomfret have a portion of 
it. Notwithstanding tbis propitious chance 
of settling here, young Wheaton had a desire 
to look farther west before he made a de- 
cision, which, as the result proved, was to 
establish him for life. Accordingly, he 
started on foot over the open prairies, in a 
southwesterly direction, sometimes getting a 
ride by stage or otherwise, and in his wan- 
derings visited St. Louis, Quincy and Bur- 
lington. At the latter place was only two 
houses. Keeping on up the river, he saw 
Dubuque, when it had but a few houses, and 
Galena, when there were only a small cluster 
of buildings at the place. From this plsce, 
he turned his course homeward, or to what 
afterward became his home, but between 
which spot and himself lay an immense 
plain of waving grasses, almost entirely unin- 
habited. Dixon was his first point to reach, 
to which a well-known trail led and also con- 
tinued on to the east, the main line leading 
to Ottawa and a branch of it to Naperville. 
Over this prairie trail he traveled on foot, 
and by time he had returned, was in a suit- 



able frame of mind to cast his lot with his 
friends, among the undulating swells of land 
where he now resides. Perhaps his long 
stretches of marching between the stopping 
stations and his tired limbs, had something 
to do with this decision, but yet the distant 
hope that Chicago would rise out of the mud 
and become at least a good market for prod- 
uce was then in the minds of every one, and 
had its influence with Mr. Wheaton. 

A year had now been spent in prospecting, 
pending which time a Mr. Knickerbocker had 
come to the place, and, liking the lay of the 
land where the Garys and L. Butterfield 
had made a claim, either unwittingly or 
through design, came to the spot with an ox 
team and began to turn over the sod. Thirty 
acres were plowed before he was discovered, 
when intelligence of the trespass came to the 
Garys and Mr. Butterfield. Something must 
be done immediately, and it was planned by 
the aggrieved party promptly to repair to the 
spot with a team rigged to a plow, and com- 
mence breaking the sod by following the fur- 
rows already made by the claim-jumper, as 
Mr. Knickerbocker then was looked upon to be. 
Thus the two rival interested parties contin- 
ued at their work, without saying a word, 
and, as they went round after round on the 
same land, determination gathered force. 
Knickerbocker was the first to raise the flag 
of truce, which he did substantially by com- 
ing to the Gary party to hold a parley. 

During this eventful parlance, young War- 
ren Wheaton, who was a looker-on, took the 
Gary team and hastened to the next rise of 
land to the east, where no claim had yet been 
made, and plowed around about 640 acres or 
more to secure it to himself before Knicker- 
bocker could have time to do it, for Mr. 
Wheaton well knew that he would be driven 
from the grounds of Gary or Butterfield. 
and felt almost certain that he would claim 



168 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



the next adjoining land, to which he now 
was making good hi sown claims. While Mr. 
Wheaton was doing this, the dispute was ad- 
justed by paying Mr. Knickerbocker $120 for 
his service in plowing the land, of which 
there were thirty acres — a happy way of set- 
tling the affair, and a generous one on the 
part of the defendants, for claim-jumping 
then was a serious offense, and if condign 
punishment was meted out for it, there was 
no one to question its justice or propriety. 
By this time, Jesse Wheaton, who had arrived 
in the country a few months subsequent to 
his brother Warren, was on the spot, and the 
disputed territory to which Knickerbocker 
had laid claim, was promptly transferred to 
him by his paying for the plowing, which he 
did. 

Perhaps this finale to these negotiations 
was a sort of " all-in-the- family '' arrange- 
ment, for the tradition says that it was then 
supposed that Jesse felt a gentleness toward 
Grinds, the sister of E. and J. Gary, the 
truth of which is confirmed by the subsequent 
marriage of the two, and it is not too much 
to say here that this marriage so promptly 
made verifies the assertion that Cupid is more 
unerring in his darts in new countries, for 
nowadays many long courtships terminate in 
failures. 

These are the circumstances which brought 
the two Wheaton brothers to the place where 
each now live, and for whom the town was 
named. That they came may be set down, 
perhaps, as the result of rivalry or ambition 
to secure a claim ahead of Mr. Knickerbocker, 
and that the town took its name for them, is, 
perhaps, the result of a friendly dinner. 

The circumstances are these: When John 
B. Turner and William B. Ogden came 
through the place, in 184 ( J, prospecting for 
a route and the right of way for the Galena 
& Chicago Union Railroad, they had met but 



slender encouragement from the settlers im- 
mediately east of this place, then without a 
name. Not that the inhabitants objected to 
the road, but they showed a disposition to 
avail themselves of the occasion to get a round 
price for the land needed for its construction. 
Instead of taking any such advantage, the 
Wheatons were in full sympathy with these 
representatives of the road, offered them the 
right of way gratis, and invited the two gen- 
tlemen to dinner. Whether it was this din- 
ner, which was doubtless a good one, or the 
free gift of land, or both combined, that in- 
fluenced the managers of the road to put the 
station here and name the place Wheaton, 
will never be known, but certain it is that no 
amount of finessing and subtlety on the part 
of rival localities, which immediately ensued, 
could change the firm purposes of Messrs. 
Turner and Ogden. They were true to their 
first love and resisted all the blandishments 
of coquetry that followed from whithersoever 
it came. 

Mr. Jewell went so far as to build a depot 
at an expense of $400, so situated as to bring 
the road near to his land, the same now known 
as Jewell's Grove, but it had no effect. 

Dissatisfaction also {prevailed in other lo- 
calities where apathy had existed but a short 
time before, ere the people had awakened to 
the importance of the subject.. 

But let us return to trace the first settlers 
who came to the place after the Wheatons 
had set their stakes here. The three next 
were Peter Crosby, who now lives next door 
east of the house of the writer; S. H. Man- 
chester, who now lives close by Wheaton, 
and Avin Simmons, who still lives at the 
place. These five first settlers are all our 
esteemed fellow-citizens to-day, July, 188 '2, 
after a residence of almost half a century, and 
all able to attend to their daily avocations 
with their accustomed promptness. To them 



MILTON TOWMSHIP. 



169 



may be added Erastus Geary and Henry T 
Wilson, both of whom are citizens of Wheat- 
on, and came to the county several years be- 
fore the first five named, but not to Wheaton 
till many had preceded them. Both these 
gentlemen are well known throughout the 
country. Mr. Gary is still an active mem- 
ber of society, taking an interest in all the 
issues that affect the welfare of our country, 
but Mr. Wilson, now within a few weeks of 
ninety-four years old, has passed his age of 
utility, though he still sometimes walks the 
streets and bids good morning: to his old 
friends, of which he has countless numbers. 

There are many others venerable with age 
and honors, but the mention of whose names 
does not belong with a list of first settlers, 
because they came later to the county. 

In the fall of 184U, the Galena & Chicago 
Union Railroad laid their track through the 
place, and thence to Elgin, and built a depot 
here, if poles set in the ground to sustain a 
roof of battened boards and sides, fashioned 
in the same manner, deserves such a name. 
The track consisted of strap iron spiked on 
wooden scantling, on which rickety old sec- 
ond-hand engines ran at slow rates; but this 
means of transportation, though defective, 
was better than the bottomless sloughs that 
intervened between Wheaton and Chicago. 

The first store built here was a grocery. 
Who ever heard of any other kind of a store 
as a pioneer effort in a new country ? Its 
very name sometimes meant that you could 
buy from its proprietor Kentucky Twist or 
Kentucky Bourbon, or something else more 
fiery, and it also meant that the way-worn 
traveler could find entertainment with a good 
solid bed to sleep in, if the bedstead which 
held it did not break down, and that he could 
luxuriate on nutritious corn-bread for supper 
and breakfast. This is what the pioneer 
grocery in a new country frequently meant, 



and the one opened here by Patrick Lynch 
justified the reputation of these primitive es- 
tablishments, especially those who played 
" Hamlet without the character of Hamlet. ' ' 
The next store was not a grocery store, that 
is, Kentucky Bourbon was not kept in it, al- 
though it kept tea, coffee and sugar and 
everything that sober people wanted from a 
penny whistle to a bass drum, to use a com- 
parison. It was a country store, and Mr. H. 
H. Fuller was its proprietor; he, at the same 
time, kept a hotel, was Postmaster, kept the 
depot and a stage office, all of which callings 
have grown into larger dimensions than one 
man could attend to, except the stage office, 
which is now one of the extinct institutions, 
like the relics of mastodons that were dug up 
on the land of Mr. Jaynes, adjacent to 
Wheaton. 

Mr. Fuller has now enough to do to attend 
to the depot, of which he still has the charge. 
His old store stood where the Central Hotel 
now stands, immediately south of the depot. 

The first man here who followed that occu- 
pation to which Elihu Burritt lent so much 
honor (that of a blacksmith), was Mr. Worm- 
with; his shop stood where the store of 
Messrs. Grotte Bros, now stands, and was 
erected in 1850. Mr. Wormwith, a few years 
later, died with consumption. The ware- 
house now occupied by Messrs. Sutcliffe & 
Kelly was built the same year as the black- 
smith shop — 1850 — by E. Gary and the 
Wheatons. 

On the 20th of June, 1853, the southeast 
quarter of Section 16, Township 36, Range 
10, having been laid out in streets, by W. 
L. Wheaton, J. C. Wheaton and others, a 
plat of it was duly recorded as the village of 
Wheaton. 

From this period to 1859, the town grew 
apace, so as to contain not less than seven or 
eight hundred inhabitants. It was, however, 



170 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



stigmatized as "Wheaton's Mud-Hole" by- 
some rival localities — a name, it must be con- 
fessed, not unmerited in the early spring or 
during excessive wet weather in its primitive 
days, when a mud blockade kept the people 
at home oftentimes when pressing necessities 
urged locomotion. 

Stimulated by these unfavorable conditions, 
the prominent citizens of the place saw the 
necessities of improving the streets and drain- 
ing the sloughs and ponds, of which there 
were many, and, after conferring together, 
decided that the true interests of the town 
required an act of incorporation, in order to 
enforce a system of public improvements. 
Accordingly, a charter was drawn up by the 
United Council of the representative men of 
the place, taking the charter of Naperville as 
a model, with but two modifications, the first 
of which was that the President of the Coun- 
cil Board should not be admitted as a mem- 
ber of the Board of Supervisors of the county, 
and the second was that the Council Board 
should have the power to license or suppress 
the sale of fermented or distilled liquors of 
all kinds. It was stipulated by the charter 
as follows: "The first election shall be held 
on the third Monday of March, A. D. 1859, 
and Erastus Gary, L. J. Bliss, Seth F. Dan- 
iels and J. C. Wheaton, or any two of them, 
may act as Judges of said election. This act 
to be in force from and after its passage." 
Approved February 24, 1859. 

The north half of the southwest quarter 
and the west half of the southeast quarter of 
Section 16, the south half of the northeast 
quarter and the east half of the southeast 
quarter of Section 17-, Township 39, Range 
10, east of the Third Principal Meridian, 
were tbe lands comprised in the charter. 

The second charter of Wheaton, the one 
under whose authority the Council now acts, 
was approved March 11, 1809. It enlarged 



the limits of the town, so as to include in all 
the whole of Section 16 and the southeast 
quarter and south half of the northeast quar- 
ter of Section 17, and the south half of the 
south half of Section 9, and the southwest 
quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 10, 
and the west half of the northeast quarter 
and the northwest quarter of the southwest 
quarter of Section 15, same township and 
range as the first description. ! 

The third article of the charter provided 
that the first Monday in each year should be 
the day of annual election for town officers, 
which officers should consist of a Council 
Board of five — that a Justice of the Peace 
and a Constable should be elected biennially 
on the same day of each alternate year, and 
that the Council Board shall have power 
to appoint a Clerk, Treasurer, Assessor and 
Street Commissioner. The office of Assessor 
is now discontinued, as the Township Assess- 
or acts in his place and the Treasurer of the 
village corporation is elected by popular vote 
instead of being appointed by the board. 

A liberal system o f public improvements 
has been inaugurated in Wheaton as the 
permanent policy of the town. First, the 
streets were piked up with dirt from ditches 
each side, ponds drained by tiling, and stone 
culverts built, but these improvements were 
found insufficient to make the streets pass- 
able in early spring, or during seasons of rain 
and warm weather in the winter, and it was 
determined to grade them with gravel, which 
fortunately abounds in various places near by. 
This work was begun in June, 1877, and, July 
16, 1880, a gravel pit was bought of E. H. 
Gary, for $400, which gives promise of an 
abundant supply of this material so essential 
to the wants of the town. 

Of the manufacturing interest of Wheaton, 
little need be said. In the summer of 1856, 
Peter Northrup built a grist-mill, with two 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



173 



run of stones propelled by steam power, to 
which a planing-mill was also attached. It 
fullilled his expectations until it was burned 
down, in December, 1858. It stood north of 
the blacksmith shop of August Michels, across 
the street. About the same time this gristmill 
was built, a carriage factory was erected just 
west of it by Avery Chadwick, with steam-pow- 
er for machinery. H. C. Childs, who came to 
Wheaton in 1855, full of ambitious ideas, 
bought out this establishment, in 1859, and 
employed about fifteen hands in it in the 
manufacture of locomotive vehicles for chil- 
dren and babies, for which there was quite a 
good home market in such a fruitful country 
as Wheaton and its surroundings. This 
building burned down in 1861, but the de- 
mand for baby carriages kept on increasing, 
notwithstanding. In this emergency, Mr. 
Childs went to work immediately to build 
another factor}', the site of which was across 
the street south of the Methodist Church. It 
was finished in 1862, and the same business 
went on it till the supply of baby carts was 
ahead of the demand, for there is a limit to 
the rate of animated reproduction. Mr. 
Childs now bought the ground now occupied 
by the Kelly Block, where formerly stood a 
fine hotel owned by Mr. Kinney (which had 
been burnt in 1861) and here he erected the 
building which now stands on the spot, and 
it is worthy of notice that he established the 
grade of Wheaton business streets by elevat- 
ing his sidewalk several feet above the old 
grade. The nest attempt at manufacturing 
here was by R. Blanchard. who established a 
map factory in the Bsdel Block, opposite the 
depot, in the autumn of 1871. In a few 
weeks the building burned, and Mr. Blanch- 
ard transferred his business to other quar- 
ters, and ultimately, to his own premises, on 
the grounds of his homestead. On the spot 
made vacant by the burning of the Bedel 



Block was built the Central Block, in 1875 
It is the principal business block of the town, 
containing ample stores and basements, with 
a tine hall and offices above. 

Had none of these establishments been 
burned, it is hardly to be supposed that 
Wheaton would ever have attained notoriety 
as a manufacturing town, for the reason that 
no streams of living water run through it, 
but its eligible situation as a place of resi- 
dence commends it to those wishing a home 
in a healthy locality among intelligent and 
thrifty people. The houses in the town are 
ample distances apart to insure a free circula- 
tion of air between each, and, in consequence 
of the college having been located at the 
eastern extremity of the town, and the grad- 
ed schoolhouse at the western, its area pre- 
sents tangent points in each respective direc- 
tion. 

For a place of its size, few have such an 
extended reputation, and it is well known 
that its fame is due to the tenacious religious 
connections, not only of its leading men. but 
of its every-day sort of people, who follow 
the ordinary occupations of life. This is 
evident from the fact that there are eight 
churches here which support regular preach- 
ing, and at least four more kinds of religious 
beliefs, too weak in numbers to have churches 
and preaching, but not too hike-warm in their 
religious feelings to keep alive in their hearts 
and consciences fidelity to their principles, 
and it is proper here to add that the univer- 
sal charity that the necessity of religious 
sentiment has imparted to the place, has 
thrown its mantel over all who act out relig- 
ion whatever they do or do not profess; and 
it is historically due to Wheaton to say that a 
citizen will be equally respected here if he 
does or does not help support any religious 
faith, other things being equal. 

The remarkable cases of longevity here are 



174 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



worthy of mention. Henry T. Wilson, aged 
ninety-four, now able to go out of doors, but 
his mind enfeebled and his memory almost 
gone. He is well known as having been an 
active and useful pioneer and a thrifty farm- 
er. Edward W. Brewster is ninety years 
old; he has seen all our early Presidents, in- 
cluding: President Washing-ton, of whom he 
still retains a dim recollection, though but a 
child when he saw him. He has ever been 
foremost in every good work that appeared 
before him to be done during his long and 
useful life. For many years he was a mem- 
ber of the School Board of Chicago, and his 
large list of friends are still found among the 
most intelligent people of that city and other 
places where his life has been spent. His 
mind is still bright, and he may be seen al- 
most any pleasant day at work in his garden. 

Mr. and Mrs. Sanford Manchester, each 
over eighty years old, have lived forty years 
in Wheaton, and, on the 28th of June, 1882, 
celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of their 
wedding-day. They are now enjoying a rea- 
sonable degree of health. 

The elevation of Wheaton at the depot is 
166 feet above Lake Michigan, on the rail- 
road track. From this point, the land grad- 
uates upward, both to the north and to the 
south, except in the channel of a slough, 
which tends to the southwest, and affords a 
good escapement for surface drainage. 

WHEATON COLLEGE. 

About the year 1850, a movement was set 
on foot in the Illinois Annual Conference of 
the Wesleyan Methodist denomination to es- 
tablish an institution of learning somewhere 
in the State of Illinois. 

The originators of the scheme were mostly 
men who had but little of this world's goods 
and prized learning for the power that they 
saw it gave others, rather than from any ex- 



tensive realization of its benefits in them- 
selves. They were real reformers, and were 
especially interested in the anti-slavery strag- 
gle which was then at its height. 

They saw with deep concern the children 
of anti slavery fathers and mothers, who 
were sent to college, where nothing was said 
against human bondage, soon losing their 
parents' principles and concluding that if 
slavery were as bad as they had been taught 
at home to regard it, the teachers they had 
learned to reverence and love would say some- 
thing about it. 

Their purpose, as his father, who was one 
of them, has often told the writer, was not so 
much to start a denominational, sectarian 
school, as to provide a place where their 
principles, by them prized and early taught 
to their children, should not be smothered 
out by being held in silence by those who 
taught or deslroyed by the active, despotic 
teaching of the times. Wheaton, offering the 
most favorable terms, was chosen as the seat 
of this school. Preparations for building 
began by the founders kneeling in the prairie 
grass on the summit of the beautiful hill now 
crowned by the stately stone edifice known as 
Wheaton College building, and dedicated the 
hill and all that should be upon it to that 
God in whom trusting they had boldly gone 
into the thickest of the fight, not only for the 
freedom of human bodies, but of human souls 
as well. 

Although often being taunted by the enemy 
with being men of but one idea, and some- 
times pleading guilty to the charge, their one 
idea was a grand one, including the whole of 
man,- all his interests for this world and the 
next. 

A plain stone building, two stories above 
the basement, forty-five feet by seventy -five, 
was first erected at a cost of about? 10,000. 
In the basement of which, the upper part be- 



MILTON TOWNSHIP 



175 



ing yet unfinished, on the 14th of December, 
1853, the Illinois Institute, for such was its 
first name, was opened under the instruction 
of Rev. John Cross, suceeding whom, the 
next April, the Rev. C. F. Winship, afterward 
missionary to Africa, had charge of the same 
for one year. Subsequently, Rev. G. P. Kim- 
ball, Miss Pierce and the writer of this consti- 
tuted the faculty until the opening of the next 
college year, when Rev. J A. Martling became 
"Principal of the first collegiate year. " 

On the opening of the school year, Septem- 
ber, 1856, Rev. L. C. Matlach, who had been 
chosen President some years before, entered 
upon his office. He was preceded a little by 
Prof. F. G. Baker, who has, till his recent 
decease, been Professor of Music and Trustee. 
Also by Dr. Hiatt. The Trustees had sold, 
chiefly through the agency of Rev. R. F. 
Markham, for many years Trustee and agent, 
scholarships to the amount of $21,000, of 
which the intention was to use only the in- 
terest, but, in the exigencies of building and 
keeping up current expenses, some $6,000 of 
the principal was either invested in a board- 
ing-hall or used up in paying bills. 

This was in part offset by $2,000 or $3,000 
of interest on scholarships yet unpaid. An 
effort was made to replace the money expend- 
ed by investing all the interest accruing 
thereafter and making up a fund of $3,200 
to run the school for two years, by the f aeult\ T 
giving $200 each from their already very 
small salaries, and the Trustees giving each 
a like sum, and securing the balance by sub- 
scription outside. This plan was only par- 
tially successful, but served to help the in- 
stitution along for a time. 

Under the Illinois Institute charter, the 
Trustees were appointed by the Illinois Con- 
ference, and vacancies accruing between its 
sessions were filled by the Trustees them- 
selves. 



The finances of the institution becoming 
more and more involved, the Trustees began 
to cast about for outside aid to meet current 
expenses and pay a debt that had already 
reached the sum of $5,000. This debt, which 
had grown to over $6,000, was afterward paid 
through the efforts of President Blanchard. 
If some people could be found and enlisted, 
who had principles like their own, the school 
could yet be saved and made to fulfill the 
design of its founders. 

The Congregationalists, in their free gov- 
ernment and general adhesion to reform prin- 
ciples, seemed more like them than any other 
church. 

Overtures were accordingly made to the 
Congregational State Association, and also to 
President J. Blanchard, who had recently left 
the Presidency of Knox College. A meeting 
of leading Congregationalists was appointed 
at Wheaton to consider the matter, which 
meeting, as a whole, decided against the prop- 
osition to adopt the college; yet many of 
its leading members promised all the aid in 
their power, if President Blanchard would 
take the Presidency of the college. 

Stipulating that the charter should be so 
changed that the Trustees should be a closed 
board; that the church should make some 
slight changes, and, while retaining its con- 
nection with the conference, should become 
connected with the Congregational Associa- 
tion. President Blanchard consented to take 
the Presidency, although at the same time he 
had similar invitations from five other insti 
tutions — some, perhaps all, apparently more 
eligible than the one accepted, for the reason 
that he preferred a college whose principles 
were like his own. The founders, also, were 
careful before giving up the control, to stipu- 
late that the institution should continue to 
teach their principles, which included nol 
only opposition to chattel slavery, but as well 



176 



HISTORY OF 1)V PAGE COUNTY. 



opposition to all spiritual despotism that 
seeks to fetter the souls of men by profane 
and extrajudicial oaths and obligations. 

In Jannary, lcS60, President Blanchard en- 
tered upon the duties of his office. The name 
of the institution was changed to Wheaton 
College, and the charter was amended by the 
Legislature of 1861. 

The first class of seven young men, all of 
them from the regular college course, gradu- 
ated on the 4th of July, 1860. 

The Board of Trustees was enlarged to 
twenty members, and J. Blanchard, Hon. 
Owen Lovejoy. Dr. F. Bascom, Deacon Moses 
Pettengill, De Chester Hard, Dr. Edward 
Beecher and F. H. Mathers, Esq., became 
members of the Board of Trustees. 

On the breaking-out of the war, a large 
number of students went into the army, so 
that the next year no class graduated. 

In response to the country's first call for 
men, several entered the service, among whom 
O. W. Wood, of the Freshman class, a noble, 
Christian young man, who, amid many dis- 
couragements, was working his way to a col- 
lege diploma and a life of usefulness beyond 
it, contracted fatal disease while lying en- 
camped among the swamps of Cairo. He 
lingered long enough to return to friends at 
Dover, 111., but soon struck his teat and went 
to be with the angels. 

G. H. Apthorpe sickened at the same time 
and place, subsequently recovered and was 
afterward shot dead while fighting as Captain 
of a colored company. 

J. H Dudley, too, succumbed to the ma- 
laria engendered by the stagnant waters 
about Cairo, dying at his home, in Whiteside 
County, 111. Of this same first quota of the 
college to the war, W. H. H. Mills, a slender, 
beautiful youth, and a universal favorite, 
lost his life while bathing in the Ohio River. 

Subsequently, G. C. Hand, of Elkhorn, 



Wis., then a graduate of the college, a young 
man of splendid scholarship, of high, noble, 
Christian bearing, who went into the army 
to serve his country, not for pelf or prefer- 
ment, choosing the post of a private when 
office was offered him, volunteering to go un- 
armed with the surgeons into danger, and, 
when captured, suffering another to go free 
in his place when he might have been ex- 
changed, died by starvation in a rebel prison. 

H Skinner, "Little Skinner," as we used 
to call him, wiry, withy little fellow, thwarted 
the cunning or malice of some practical joker 
or copperhead, who had, during the night, 
placed the hated palmetto flag above the 
great ball surmounting the cupola of the col- 
lege, hoping to enjoy the rage of the mass of 
angry youth who, in the morning, should 
hasten to haul it down. The boy's peering 
eyes, before all others, espied it, and, almost 
without an observer, he performed the daring 
feat of climbing the lightning rod and no eye 
again saw that emblem of rebellion. To our 
surprise, for we thought him too small for a 
soldier, one day Skinner donned the blue and 
slung his knapsack and rode away to join the 
country's braves on the field of deadly strife. 
In the morning of that awful day at Pea 
Ridge, Skinner was on the sick list. When 
the order came to march out to battle, forth 
came he from the hospital, but was ordered 
back, but the hospital could not contain him 
while his fellows were fighting for their 
country. Sallying forth, he mounted ahorse 
and all day long he was in the thickest of the 
fight, and, at nightfall, insensible, was borne 
by loving comrades back to camp. 

In one of the hard-fought battles of the 
South, while in the midst of a conflict, a rebel 
bullet sent him to sleep with the immortal 
defenders of liberty. Wheaton College gave 
to the country other sons not here mentioned, 
because not known to the writer, or, if once 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



177 



known, not now recalled. Others, no less 
brave, bear honorable scars that tell of their 
fidelity. Among these, Maj. Powell, now of 
the Smithsonian Institute, having buried an 
arm in the grave of the great rebellion, after- 
ward, in the service of science, in the ex- 
plorations of the canons of the great rivers 
of the Pacific slope, performed deeds of dar- 
ing surpassing those of knight-errant, with 
his one strong arm boldly steering his frail 
boat into gloomy canons, which the boldest 
native, with two arms, dared not enter, shoot- 
ing the water falls and coming out safe many 
miles below. M>j. John Kinley, of the in- 
vincible Eighth Illinois Cavalry, is growing 
prematurely gray from an ugly wound receiv- 
ed in battle, and Sergt. J. F. Ellis, who, 
while carrying his colors into the deadly 
breach, fell by a terrible wound, still lives to 
engage in the ever irrepressible moral con- 
flict against evil. But the great design of 
Wheaton College was not to fit men for car- 
nal warfare. It soon found that in this world 
where error reigns, truth may not be taught 
with impunity. From the first, the college 
had a rule forbidding students to attend se- 
cret societies while in college. The Master 
of the Masonic Lodge gave notice that he 
intended to break down this rule. For some 
months it did not appear how he was going 
to make the attack, till at length a strolling 
lecturer was imported to organize a Good 
Templars Lodge. He said publicly, let the 
students join us, and. if the faculty dare say 
anything we will publish them to the ends of 
the earth, and they will have to shut up their 
doors. Three students were known to have 
joined them, one of whom was made their 
Secretary, and defiantly posted notice of their 
meetings in the college halls. The challenge 
thus boldly given was not declined. When 
arraigned and asked if they knew of the col- 
lege rule, they said they did and intended to 



disregard it, Their parents were then inter- 
viewed, and one of them said that he pro- 
posed that his son should attend the lodge 
and the college too. The students were then 
suspended until they should conform to the 
rule. The falsehood was everywhere pub- 
lished that the college had expelled students 
for belonging to a temperance society. A 
writ of mandamus was sued out to compel 
the faculty to take these students back. 
They were beaten in the lower court and 
appealed, the Master of the Masonic Lodge 
signing the bail bonds for the costs. The 
Supreme Court sustained the decision of 
the lower tribunal, and the first moral conflict 
ended. 

As to birds, there comes a time of nest build- 
ing; so to men and institutions there comes 
a time to build; such was the next great un- 
dertaking of this young college. 

A proposition was made to raise the first 
$10,000 in little Du Page County, and the 
President said that if others would raise this 
amount at home, he would go abroad and se- 
cure other funds to complete the enterprise. 
Part of the sum was raised, and the writer of 
this was appointed to canvass the county and 
complete the subscription. 

The west wing was then inclosed and six 
recitation rooms finished in the connecting 
wing, when all the moneys raised were ex- 
pended, and, in pursuance of the policy not 
to go into debt, building operations ceased. 

About two years iter, the President hav 
ing secured more money, the work of build 
ing was again resumed, and continued until 
the present noble building was completed, at 
a cost of some $70,000, although in doing so 
a debt, in spite of the President's protest, of 
$20,000 was contracted. 

After this period of external material ac- 
tivity, there succeeded a calm which was fol- 
lowed by a moral tornado. 



178 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



The immediate successors of the Illinois 
Institute Trustees and faculty felt doubly 
bound, both by their own convictions and by 
the injunction of their predecessors to teach 
their principles, while others who came in 
later, while professing to hold the same prin- 
ciples, wished Wheaton to be like other col- 
leges that made no stir about these reform 
principles. The secret empire, which, de- 
spising the weakness of this feeble folk, had 
before kept comparatively quiet, now began 
to show signs of war. As before, the local 
lodge issued, by its Master, its brutum fulmen 
against a rule, so now there came from secret 
caverns a hundred miles away an edict that 
the head of this dangerous institution must 
be cut off. Strike, but conceal the hand, is 
the assassin's motto, upon which secrecy al- 
ways acts. The outburst of this real division 
of sentiment in the college and church; the 
sore heads always thrown off by any active 
movement; the financial embarrassment of 
the college, all together, seemed to afford a 
fitting opportunity for action, and for the 
real actors to escape notice. 

One material thing only seems to have es- 
caped their notice. No power on earth could 
perform the desired decapitation outside of 
the Board of Trustees, and the large majority 
of these held the same principles as their 
President, and were men whom neither threats 
could intimidate nor money buy, both of 
which were tried. 

When other measures failed, ecclesiastical 
action was taken, such as, if now attempted 
in any civil court in Christendom, would con- 
demn the actors to an immortality of infamy 
more enduring than that of the Star Chamber 
or the Holy Commission, the result of which 
was to drive from the association of which he 
had been a father, and the college church 
from connection with what had always pro- 
fessed to be a circle of free churches. When 



the mad surges finally are laid, it is found 
that God still reigns, and Wheaton College, 
head and all, lives. Not only lives, but still 
grows and strengthens, sending downward its 
roots and upward and outward its branches, 
bearing leaves and flowers and fruits, bidding 
fair to become a tree of the centuries, to 
stand, when the errors it was set to with- 
stand have faded from the minds of an intel- 
ligent, free, Christian people. 

The debt of the college, now increased to 
nearly $24,000, still remained unpaid. Prof. 
C. A. Blanchard was planning for much 
needed rest in the summer vacation, when, 
on reading some passages of Scripture, he 
felt impressed that the debt must be paid, 
and he must take measures to raise it. Times 
were still hard, and sober business men said 
that nothing short of a financial miracle 
could do it. Contrary to the judgment of 
the President even, Prof. Blanchard got up 
a subscription, payable in case the whole sum 
should be subscribed before the opening of 
the next fall term. When urged to put the 
time lonarer, he said if it was raised God 
must raise it, and he could do it in that 
time as well as longer. Before the time ap- 
pointed, every dollar of he sum was made up 
as a free-will offering. 

The college lives to day out of debt, its 
faculty agreeing to take what money comes 
in during the year, and at the close give be 
balance of their small salaries, and report no 
debt. 

Owing to the infirmities of age, its old 
President has for two years sought to retire, 
but, by the united entreaties of Trustees and 
faculty, has been induced to retain the office 
till the present. 

He now, full of years and honors, gives place 
to his son, Prof. Charles A. Blanchai'd, who 
comes to the head of an institution every way 
well equipped for duty, having in addition 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



179 



to the ordinary college, a prosperous musical 
department, under the charge of Prof. S. 
Wesley Martin; a very successful art depart- 
ment, taught by Mrs. S. H. Nutting, and a 
young and vigorous theological seminary, 
under the charge of President L. N. Stratton, 
one of the first graduates of the college. — O. 
F. Lumry. 

THE COLLEGE CHDRCH OF CHRIST. 

The first settlers on the site of the town of 
Wheaton were Hon. Warren L. Wheaton and 
his brother, Jesse C. Wheaton, for whom the 
town was named. They worshiped with a 
small Methodist Episcopal Society, at Gary's 
Mill, in this county. The first society formed 
within the town was by Wesleyans, February, 
IS 48, and numbered at first fourteen mem- 
bers. 

This society was ministered to by Rev. 
Kufus Larnry, Rev. Milton Smith, Alexander 
McArthur, L. B. Ferris, John Cross, G. Clark, 
William Kimball, H. Moulton, William Whit- 
ten and R. F. Markham, whose labors ex- 
tended to 1855. From that year to 1859, 
the preachers were Joel Grinnell, G. P. Kim- 
ball and L. C. Matlack. 

January, 1860, J. Blanchard. who had been 
called to the Presidency of the college, took 
charge of the church. A new charter was ob- 
tained for the college, and the name of the 
church was changed to the First Church of 
Christ, in Wheaton, February 2, 1860, and 
about one hundred members were received in 
the first two years of his pastorate. The Wes- 
leyans had a rule excluding members of secret 
orders from the first, seventeen years before the 
change, and they made it a condition of the 
change that their testimonies against slavery 
and secret societies should be faithfully main- 
tained, which condition has been sacredly 
observed. It was, however, thought expe- 
dient to organize a Wesleyan society, and an 



amicable division took place, which resulted 
in the present Wesleyan Church in Whea- 
ton, November, 1862. Before and since the 
withdrawal of the Wesleyans, the members 
of both churches have all walked in harmony 
from first to last. 

The "First Church of Christ" was so 
named after the manner of the early Congre- 
gational Churches of this county, which 
aimed to be after the strict New Testament 
model, and were notcalled "Congregational," 
but as in Hartford and New Haven, etc., 
simply churches, designated by number, . 
street or locality. Like the early Congre- 
gational Churches, too, it called its commit- 
tees of discipline " Elders. " Its government, 
too, like theirs, is strictly Scriptural, that is 
to say, democratic. 

Several attempts were made to over-ride or 
rescind the rule excluding the secret deistical 
orders, both in the church and in the college, 
but our Circuit and Supreme Courts sustained 
the rule, and the church refused to ignore or 
rescind it. 

The church united with the Fox River 
Union in 1860. It was set off to a new Con- 
gregational association, the Aurora, in 1867, 
and was transferred by request to the Elgin 
association, in 1875. The relations of the 
First Church with the three local associations 
to which it has belonged, have been unoxcep 
tionably harmonious, as also with the general 
association of Illinois. All these bodies have 
on their records, the strongest possible testi - 
monies against the deistic secret orders. In 
1867, the State Association adopted a resolu 
tion, written by Professor, now President, 
Bartlett, of Dartmouth College, declaring 
Freemasonry " hostile to good government 
and the true religion," and, at the same ses- 
sion, a report by Dr. Edward Beecher, which 
says: "By it (Freemasonry) Christ is de- 
throned and Satan is exalted." And Aurora 



180 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Association refused to license two young 
men who were Freemasons to preach. 

Difficulties having arisen in 1877 of a com- 
plex nature, stimulated by an officer of a Ma 
sonic lodge outside, at the written request of 
above eighty members, in January, 1878, 
the church voted to dissolve and become two 
churches, allowing the members to go with 
either body as they chose. Some thirty act- 
ing members withdrew and afterward ex- 
changed the name of "First Church of 
Christ " for the " First Congregational 
Church," and also struck from the manual 
their testimony against secret lodges. 

The original church, to avoid controversy 
about the name, took the name of the " Col- 
lege Church of Christ, retains the testimonies 
unaltered (1882), worships in the same place 
where it ever has done since its organization; 
has enjoyed several revivals of religion, peace 
in its own membership and charity with all 
churches of Christ. — Jonathan Blanchard. 

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 

The organization known as the First Con 
gregational Church, Wheaton. originated in 
a meeting held at the residence of Joseph 
Chadwick, Sr. , in February, 1843, and was 
first known as the Wesleyan Methodist 
Church, its membership numbering fourteen 
persons. Rev. Rufus Livmry was the first 
minister. For several years, no records were 
preserved, but it is known that the follow- 
ing-named ministers preached for the church 
between the years 18-43 and 1854: Milton 
Smith, Alex Mc Arthur, L. B. Ferris, John 
Cross, Geo. Clark, Wm. Kimball, H. Moulton, 
Wm Whittin and R. F. Markham. 

The records have been preserved since 
1855, and from these we learn that Rev. Joel 
Grennell preached a few months during that 
year; Rev. G. P. Kimball, four months in 
1856; Rev. L. C. Matlack, in 1856-59. 



In January, I860, Rev. J. Blanchard was 
employed as supply, and on February 2 suc- 
ceeding, the church voted to adopt the name 
of the First Church of Christ, in Wheatou, 
111., and to send a delegate to the next meet- 
ing of the Fox River Union, a Congrega- 
tional association. At the same time, a 
church covenant, in accordance with Congre- 
gational usage, was adopted. At the meet- 
ing of the Fox River Union, April 25, 1860, 
the church was received into the fellowship 
of the Congregational Churches. For geo- 
graphical considerations, it was dismissed to 
the Aurora Association in 1867, and by that 
body to the Elgin Association in 1875, where 
it still holds denominational connection. 

On November 29, 1862, twenty-eight mem- 
bers petitioned for letters of dismission, to 
form a Wesleyan Methodist Church, which 
were granted. 

In January, 1878, difficulties in the church 
culminated in the withdrawal and subsequent 
excision of a large number of members, who 
organized as an independent body, styled the 
College Church of Christ. 

During the twenty-two years of existence 
as a Congregational Church, nearly seven 
huadred persons have been connected with its 
membership, and its pulpit has been supplied 
by the following clergymen, viz. : E. N. 
Lewis, G. F. Milliken, William H. Brewster, 
J. B. Walker, D. D. , Lathrop Taylor and 
Augustine G. Hibbard. The pastoral relation 
has been formally instituted in but two in- 
stances, Rev. G. F. Milliken and the present 
pastor having been regularly installed. 

A house of worship was built in 1878, at a 
cost of nearly $5,500. In January, 1879, 
the name was changed to harmonize with its 
denominational connection, to its present 
title, the First Congregational Church. The 
present membership is forty-three; Sabbath 
school membership, seventy; contributions 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



181 




for twelve months, $1,300. Church Clerk, 
Rev. I. A. Hart; Deacons, Loren Barnes, 
Rev. H. W. Cobb and E. B. Wakeman; Sun- 
day School Superintendent, William Nunn; 
Trustees, E. W. Fisher, George Maze, S. N. 
Moffatt. — Augustine R. Hibbard. 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church at Whea- 
ton was organized as a circuit October 24, 
1857, with the following officers: Rev. J. 
W. Agard, Presiding Elder; Rev. J. Nate, 
first pastor; Rev. C. Gary, Local Deacon; 
Erastus Gary, Levi Ballou, M. E. Nash, 
John Finnerson, George Reed, Joel Wiant, 
William Ainsworth and Warren L. Wheaton, 
Stewards; Orlando Wakeley, David S. Chris- 
tian and William Miller, Class-Leadem 

Rev. T. L. Olmsted, with Rev. George 
Brewster as his assistant, succeeded Rev. J. 
Nate as pastor. 

In 1859, Rev. Luke Hitchcock was Presid- 
Elder, and Rev. Thomas Corcoran was 
preacher in charge. 

In May. 1860, Rev. L. Hitchcock was 
elected agent of the Western Methodist Book 
Concern, and Rev. E. M. Boring was ap- 
pointed Presiding Elder of the district. In 
the fall of 1860, Wheaton was made a sta- 
tion, with Rev. L. H. Bugbee as preacher in 
charge, Rev. William Kimball as Local El- 
der, with P. M. Curtis, O. Wakeley, J. C. 
Wheaton and W. L. Wheaton as Stewards, 
with M. E. Nash and L. S. Phillips as Class- 
Leaders. 

In the winter of 1861, the present church 
was finished, and dedicated by Bishop M. 
Simpson, assisted by Rev. E. M. Boring and 
Rev. O. H. Tiffany. It had eighty-seven 
members and eighteen probrttionists, and the 
Sunday school connected with it had an en- 
rollment of 160. Wheaton was in the Chi- 
cago District of the Rock River Conference. 



The following is a list of its Presiding El- 
ders, who succeeded Rev. E. M. Boring to the 
present time: Rev. S. P. Keys, Rev. H. 
Crews, Rev. W. C. Damdy, Rev. A. J. Jut- 
kins, Rev. W. C. Willing and Rev. L. Hitch- 
cock. 

The following is the order of pastors since 
the first one: Rev. A. W. Page, Rev. J. O. 
Cramb, Rev. George E. Strowbridge, Rev. S. 
Stover, Rev. John Ellis (during whose charge 
there was a gracious revival of religion), Rev. 
William Goodfellow, D. D., Rev. J. G. Camp- 
boll, Rev. S. Searl, Rev. R. Congdon, Rev. 
William P. Gray and Rev. E. M. Boring. 

The church has had a varied history. 
Many who have been identified with it 
have removed to other localities, and many 
have died in the faith and gone home to 
heaven. 

It has contributed its share to the benevo- 
lent enterprises of the day. both in material 
aid and by its influence, and now stands with 
a fair record and in the enjoyment of a rea- 
sonable degree of prosperity — an honor to the 
cause of Christ, and a blessing to the world. 
It has a membership of eighty-seven, and five 
probationists, and a Sunday school member- 
ship of 225, with an average attendance, dur- 
ing the past year, of 110. 

The writer has just been returned to this 
charge for the third year. The following 
are the present officers of the church: A. B. 
Curtis, Local Preacher; J. C. Wheaton, Sr., 
J. C. Wheaton, Jr. , W. I. Wheaton, E. H. 
Gary, N. E. Gary, William L. Gary, William 
H. Wakelee, B. Loveless and H. H. Fuller, 
Stewards; A. B. Curtis, Levi Ballou, C. O. 
Boring, Class-Leaders; J. C. Wheaton, Sr., 
E. H. Gary, William L. Gary, H.;H. Fuller, 
H. Holt, J. G. Vallette, J. J. Cole and A. M. 
Ballou, Trustees; C. O. Boring and A. B. 
Curtis, Superintendents of the Sunday school. 
The Trustees hold in trust for the church one 



182 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



church valued at $3,000, and one parsonage 
valued at $2,500. 

The above report is made from imperfect 
data, and doubtless has many omissions of 
persons and events which should have been 
named. — E. M. Boeing. 

BAPTIST CHURCH. 

Eev. Philander Taylor was the real pio- 
neer of the Baptist denomination in this vi- 
cinity. He began his work at Stacy's Cor- 
ners as early as 1846, and succeeded in es- 
tablishing a church at the place, which would 
have been a permanent one, had not the in- 
fluence of the railroad, which left that place 
a mile out of the way in 1849, drawn busi- 
ness to Danby. 

Under such adverse circumstances, it was 
in vain to try to build up the church at the 
Corners, and the building which had been 
erected for its use was removed to Danby, the 
railroad station, where the prospects for a 
village seemed promising. Meanwhile, the 
few Baptists at the Corners, intent on build- 
ing up and re-organizing, chose Wheaton as 
the most propitious place for their second 
attempt, not for its local convenience, but 
because it seemed to give better promise of a 
growing place than any other within the 
same compass. In accordance with this reso- 
lution, the society held their meeting at a 
schoolhouse at this place, after the removal 
of their church, and continued to do so ti II 
18(53, during which period several citizens of 
Wheaton joined them, and they felt strong 
enough to organize a church, which was done 
in 1864. For the next year, they held their 
meetings mostly in the Universalis! Church. 
Meantime, they had commenced a building 
of their own, which was partly finished, and 
meetings held in its vestry room from May 12, 

1866, till the comjdetion of the building, in 

1867. It was dedicated the 5th of Decem- 



ber. Bev. Garrison was the pastor of this 
society from its first meetings in Wheaton 
most of the time till its re-organization at 
that place in 1864. Bev. B. F. McLafferty 
was the first pastor after its re-organization. 
He was succeeded by Bev. S. W. Marston, 
who held charge till 1865, since which time 
Eev. E. O. Brien, Bev. W. W. Smith, Bev. 
A. J. Colby, Eev. F. M. Smith, Eev. S. Ba- 
ker, Jr., Eev. Henry B. Waterman and Eev. 
T. W. Green have in turn been pastors of 
this church. The main church building is 
33x56 feet, added to which is a vestry 18x24 
feet. 

The first Trustees of the church were P. 
W. Stacy, John Sutcliffe, P. S. Driscoll, E. 
S. Kelley and John Eoberts. 

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN WHEATON. 

The first services of this church were held 
in June, 1875, by the Eev. Dr. C. V. Kelly, 
who continued to hold occasional services 
until the time of his death, in the spring of 
1876. The Eev. Dr. William Eeynolds suc- 
ceeded him in the work in June, 1876, re- 
maining in charge of the mission until his 
death, in the summer of the same year. The 
parish then remained without a clergyman 
for nearly a year, the services being contin- 
ued every Sunday with Mr. William A. 
Shearson as lay reader. 

In May, 1877, Bishop McLaren sent to the 
mission the Bev. Dr. T. N. Morrison, who 
has remained in charge up to the present 
date (October, 1882). 

Until June, 1882, the services of the mis- 
sion were held in the Universalist Church ; 
but on Sunday, the 18th of December, 1881, 
the Bishop of the Diocese laid the corner- 
stone of the new church, which was completed 
in June of the following year. 

The consecration services were held on the 
20th of June, 1882, and were attended by the 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



183 



Bishop and a large number of the clergy and 
laity from Chicago and its vicinity. 

The new church, which bears the name of 
Trinity, is built of wood, with stone found- 
ation. Its seating capacity is about one hun- 
dred and fifty, the dimensions of the nave 
being 28x00 feet, and of the chancel 14x16. 
The interior of the church is finished in oiled 
pine and stained walnut, and has a handsome 
open timbered roof. The windows are of 
stained glass, and are, in several instances, 
memorial gifts. The chancel is semi-octag- 
onal in form, and is finished like the body 
of the church. The various articles of chan- 
cel furniture are of walnut, and were, with 
the exception of the altar, gifts from individ- 
uals, the altar being given by the Church of 
the Epiphany, Chicago. 

The church, which is entirely free of debt, 
was built and furnished at a cost of about 
$5,100, all of which was contributed by the 
members of the mission and their friends. — 
Mary Drummond. 

wesleyan methodist church. 

The Wesleyan Methodist Church of Whea- 
ton was organized in February, 1843, at a j 
meeting held at the house of Joseph Chad- 
wick, in what is now known as the Hadley 
neighborhood. George C. Vedder was chosen 
Chairman; Joseph Chad wick, Steward; and 
Abial Hadley, Class-Leader. Rev. Rufus 
Lumery was the first pastor. The primary 
reason which led to this organization was the 
connection of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
with slavery, the parties in this movement 
being members of her communion. That 
this band of reformers were justified in their 
action is unmistakably proven by the history 
of the times, the church from which they 
withdrew, as also others, having long since 
indorsed their position. 

The distinctive reformatory principles of 



the church are opposition to slavery, secret 
societies and arbitrary church government; 
methodistical in doctrine and usages, Congre- 
gational in government, the laity being 
equally represented with the clergy in all 
their deliberations. It holds an associated 
relation with a connection of churches known 
as the Wesleyan Methodist connection of 
America. This was the first church in 
Wheaton. Its early history and interests 
were closely identified with those of Wheaton 
College, which was founded by the Wesley - 
ans Tinder the name of Illinois Institute. In 
1860, by mutual agreement, the college passed 
into the hands of the Congregationalists, 
and the church connected therewith assumed 
the name of the First Church of Christ, fol- 
lowing which a re-organization was effected, 
thereby constituting the present Wesleyan 
Church. 

The following persons have served the 
church as pastors: Revs. R. Lumery, Milton 
Smith, A. Mc Arthur, L. B. Ferris, John 
Cross, George Clark, William Kimball, H. 
Maulton, William "Whitten, R. F. Markham. 
George Kimball, Joel Grennell, L. C. Mal- 
lack, J. Blanchard, A. H. Hiatt, D. F. Shep- 
ardson, H. R. Will, William Pinkney, Will- 
iam H. Van Boren, J. M. Snyder, J. N. Bed- 
ford, A. F. Deinpsey and L. N. Stratton, 
President of Wheaton Theological Seminary. 
— L. W. Mills. 

st. Michael's catholic church. 
The Catholic congregation of St. Michael's 
Church at Wheaton was organized in 1879. 
Up to that time, and until the new church 
was formally and solemnly dedicated — which 
was done on the 29th of June, 1882 — the peo- 
ple living in and around Wheaton used to at- 
tend service partly in Winfield, partly in 
Milton, both places being two and a half miles 
distant from Wheaton. In 1879, however, the 



181 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



people thought it best to have their own at- 
tendance, and hence they concluded to build 
a suitable church for worship. The founda- 
tion was begun on the 29th of May, 1879, 
and by the 24th of the following month, work 
had advanced so far that the corner-stone 
could be laid, which was done by Very Rev. 
J. McMullen, at that time Administrator of 
the Diocese of Chicago. After the comple- 
tion of the basement, work stopped for nearly 
two years — ajjparently for want of means — 
but it was resumed in the fall of 1881. The 
edifice, which has a stone basement, on which 
is built a handsome frame church, measures 
45x80. Above the altar in the middle, a 
picture of the Archangel St. Michael, fighting 
the demon, an oil painting by J. Schott, 
Detroit; at the left of the altar, a statue of 
the Blessed Virgin ; and at the right a statue 
of St. Joseph. The whole was finished June 
29, 1882. It is an ornament for Wheaton, a 
proof of the liberality of the rather small 
congregation — number of families at present 
being about thirty-five. It was solemnly 
blessed on the above date, by His Grace, the 
Most Rev. Archbishop P. A. Feehan, D. D., 
who appointed the Rev. William de la Porte, 
who, for over twelve years, was pastor at Na- 
perville, as rector of the new church. — Wm. 
de la Porte. 

st. Stephen's church at milton. 
This church is as old as St. Peter's at Na- 
perville, from which place it was formerly 
attended up to August, 1860. Then the Rev. 
M. Albrecht took, for a short time, charge of 
the congregation. After his departure, for 
two years it was attended by the Benedictine 
Fathers from Chicago, when the church at 
W infield was built, and that place received 
its own pastor. Milton then was regularly 
attended from Winfield twice a month. At 
present, it is under the care of the pastor of 



Wheaton, who visits the church likewise 
twice a month. — Wm. de la Porte. 

THE GERMAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN ST. JOHN'S 
CHURCH OF WHEATON. 

This congregation was organized in the 
beginning of the year 1865. At the time of 
its organization, it numbered some forty fam- 
ilies. Its first services were held in the Uni- 
versalist Church, Rev. F. VV. Richmann, at 
that time pastor of a congregation in Elgin, 
occupying their pulpit every second Sunday. 
On Christmas Day of the same year, the 
congregation tendered a regular call to Rev. 
Prof. C. A. T. Selle, of the Evangelical Lu- 
theran Teachers' Seminary at Addison, 111., 
who accepted, and remained their pastor for 
nearly seven years. Services were then held 
iD the northeast and public schoolhouse. At 
the close of 1871, Prof. Selle left, and Rev. 
G. G. W. Bruegmann. pastor of Rothenberg, 
followed in his place. This gentleman also 
remained for a period of seven years. Dur- 
ing the time of his pastorate, in 1875, the 
congregation bought the southwest end pub- 
lic school property, and fitted it up to suit 
their purpose. In the spring of 1878, Rev. 
Bruegmann accepted a call to Herscher Sta- 
tion, 111., and the pulpit of the congregation 
from that time until the fall of 1880 was 
alternately supplied by the Lutheran pastors 
from neighboring towns, viz., Rev. H. F. 
Fruechtenicht, from Elgin; Rev. M. Grosse, 
from Oak Park; Rev. I. H. C. Steege, from 
Dundee; Rev. H. Freese, from Algonquin; 
Rev. H. Grupe, from Rothenberg; Rev. L. 
Wagner, from Chicago; and Rev. Prof. Theo- 
dore Brohm, from Addison. Up to this time, 
the congregation had Gospel service but every 
second Sunday. In the fall of 1880, their 
present pastor, the Rev. Karl Koch, was 
tendered a call, who had just finished his 
theological studies in the seminary, connected 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



135 



with the German Evangelical Lutheran Syn- 
od of Missouri, Ohio and other States, at St. 
Louis. Regular services were now held every 
Sabbath day. The present number of fami- 
lies constituting the congregation is fifty-five, 
with nearly three hundred and fifty souls. 
In connection with the church, an every-day 
school is sustained by the congregation, 
which is taken care of and taught by the 
pastor himself. The number of scholars last 
winter was sixty- two; in spring, thirty-two. 
The schoolhouse was built in the fall of 1881, 
at an expense of nearly $000. The present 
value of the whole property belonging to the 
congregation is about $3,000. 

Standing in close relation with the congre- 
gation at Wheaton, there is a smaller one at 
Turner Junction, numbering but fifteen fam- 
ilies, where regular Gospel services are led 
by the pastor of the Wheaton Church in the 
afternoon of every second Sunday. The 
place of worship is the Methodist Chru'ch. 
the use of which has been secured for a small 
amount of rent. — Karl Koch. 

THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH OF WHEATON. 

In 1862, a few men met together in Whea- 
ton to form a society. They were not pro- 
fessed Universalists, but this name was applied 
to them, and perhaps fitted them better than 
any other. They resolved to build a church, 
and aj^pointed a committee to this end, whose 
names were C. K. W. Howard, H C. Childs. 
E. Holmes, J. O. Vallette and Hiram Smith. 
The house was built by subscription, and 
dedicated the same year. S. C. Bulkier was 
the first pastor, who has been succeeded by 
A. M. Worden, A. B. Call, J. O. Barrett, 
Henry Jewell, Samuel Ashton, D. P. Kayner, 
J. Straube and S. Sage. 

Some of the terms of the above ministers 
lasted but a few weeks, and between several 
of them have been vacations without preach- 



ing. It would not be proper to call this body 
of men a church, because they never have 
united under any bond of faith, or ins ituted 
any church ordinance in discipline. Strictly 
speaking, they are liberals, perhaps no two of 
whom believe alike on religious questions. 
They are bound together by no creed, and 
cannot be rent asunder by apostasy. 

They have occasional preaching, when a 
meritorious speaker offers his services and 
expounds the general theory of a broad relig- 
ion to meet their approbation. 

ANCIENT, FREE AND ACCEPTED MASONS. 

Wheaton Lodge, No. 269, A., F. & -1. .1/., was 
chartered by the Grand Lodge of Illinois Oc- 
tober 6, 1S58, working seven months under 
dispensation. The first officers were J. G. Val- 
lette, W. M.; Peter Northrop, S. W.; F. H. 
Mather, J. W.; Harry T. Wilson. Treas.; L. J. 
Bliss, Sec; William Vallette, S. D.; Henry 
Bird, J. D.; William E. Taylor, Tiler. 

The charter members were J. G. Vallette, 
Peter Northrop, Frederick H. Mather. W. I'. 
Abbott, H. T. Wilson. Henry Bird and James 
L. Bliss. 

In 1859, J. G. Vallette was W. M., aud James 
L. Bliss, Sec. In I860, L. J. Bliss was W. M., 
and J. G. Vallette, Sec. In 1861, L. J. Bliss 
was W. M., and J. McConnell, Sec. In 1862, 
L. J. Bliss was W. M., ami W. E. Taylor, Sec. 
In 1863, Henry Bird was W. M., and Simeon 
Schupp. See. In 1864, H. C. Childs was W. 
M., and W. G. Smith, Sec. In 1865, H. C. 
Childs was W. M., and P. Parmelee, Sec. In 
1866, H. C. Childs was W. M„ and Henry E. 
Allen. Sec. In 1S67. M. E. Jones was W. M., 
and II. E. Allen, Sec. In 1868, H. C. Childs 
was W. M., and J. B. Clark, Sec. In 1869, 
Melvin Smith was W. M., aud James B. Clark 
was Sec. In 1870, Melvin Smith was W. M., 
and William H. Johnson, Sec. In 1871, Mel- 
vin Smith was W. M.. and John Roberts, Sec. 
In 1872, M. E. Jones was W. M.. and II. W 



186 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Grote, Sec. In 1873, Alfred Waterman was W. 
M., and Henry Grote, Sec. In 1874, L. Collar 
was W. M., and H. W. Grote, Sec. In 1875, 
James Saunders was W. M., and Henry M. 
Bender, Sec. In 1S76, William H. Johnson 
was W. M., and G. II. Thrasher, Sec. In 1877, 
William H. Johnson was W. M., and L. C. 
Stover, Sec. In 1878, Leonard Pratt was W. 
M., and L. C. Stover, Sec. In 1879. William 
H. Johnson was W. M., and L. C. Stover, Sec. 
In 1880, William H. Johnson was W. M., and 
L. C. Stover, Sec. In 1881, William H. John- 
son was W. M., and L. C. Stover, See. 

The present officers are M. E. Jones, W. M.; 
I. S. Ward, S. W.; Horace Jayne, J. W.; Will- 
iam H. Johnson, Treasurer ; L. C. Stover, Sec; 
Fred Jewell, S. D.; William Rothchild, J. D.; 
John Hohman, Tiler. 

From its organization until May, 1866, the 
lodge held its meetings in the building on the 
corner of North Railroad and Hale streets, now 
occupied by Grote Bros. From that time until 
May, 1870, meetings were held in the third 
story of the Bedell Building. At that time the 
lodge was moved to the building where its 
meetings are now held, then owned by Smith & 
Kimball, and purchased by the lodge in Janu- 
ary, 1872. In December, 1875, the lodge, in 
connection with Doric Chapter, No. 166, R. A. 
M., rented rooms in the second story of the 
Central Block, and held its meetings there until 
July, 1878. when it moved back to its present 
quarters in its own building, where it has since 
held its meetings, enjoying a fair share of pros- 
perity and success. — William H. Johnson. 

Doric Chapter, No. 166, R. A. M.— The first 
movement toward organizing a chapter of Royal 
Arch Masons in Wheaton was made by a few 
Companions, who met in the hall of Wheaton 
Lodge, No. 269, November 3, 1874, and, after 
consultation, decided to make an earnest effort 
to establish a chapter in Wheaton. which they 
at once proceeded to do. 



In the meantime, J. Blanchard, hearing of 
the effort that was being made, called an indig- 
nation meeting of the citizens of Wheaton, to 
take measures to prevent the organization of a 
Chapter of Royal Arch Masons here in their 
midst. Accordingly, he and his adherents met 
in the Wesleyan Church, and, after due con- 
sideration, protested against it. Notwithstand- 
ing, on January 13, 1875, a dispensation was 
issued by the Grand High Priest, authorizing 
the formation of a chapter in Wheaton, and 
October 28, 1875, a charter was issued to the 
following Companions : 

John H. Lakey, Edward J. Hill, C. P. J. 
Arion, William H. Johnson, H. T. Wilson, G. 
H. Thrasher, L. Collar, Henry M. Bender, 
James Saunders, Caspar Voll, H. H. Fuller, A. 
H. Wiant, J. McConnell, G. P. Gary, William J. 
Loy, John Tye, John McWilliams, L. Ziemer, 
E. H. Gary, L. B. Church, J. B. Trull, H. Brad 
ley, L. C. Clark, George Webb, 0. M. Hollister, 
A. Campbell, John Kline, L. L. Iliatt, A. Wat- 
erman, A. E. Bisbee and Frank F. Lovelaud. 

The officers of Doric Chapter, while working 
under dispensation, were, John H. Lakey, H. 
P.; Edward J. Hill, K.; C. P. J. Arion, S.; 
William H. Johnson, C. H.; L. C. Clark, P. S.; 
A. H. Wiant, R. A. C; John McWilliams, M. 
3d Veil ; G. H. Thrasher, M. 2d Veil ; H. T. 
Wilson, M. 1st Veil; L. Collar, Treas.; J. B. 
Trull, Sec; A. E. Bisbee, Tiler. 

In 1876, E. J. Hill was H. P., and G. H. 
Thrasher, Sec. In 1877 and 1878, F. F. Love- 
land was H. P., and C. Voll, Sec. In 1879, 
1S80, 1881 and 1882, William H. Johnson was 
H. P., and Caspar Voll, Sec. 

While working under dispensation, the chap- 
ter met in the hall of Wheaton Lodge. After 
being chartered, it occupied rooms in Central 
Block jointly with Wheaton Lodge until July, 
1878, since which time it has held its meetings 
in the hall of Wheaton Lodge. 

Its piesent officers are William H. Johnson, 
H. P.; John McWilliams, K.; H. T. Wilson, 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



187 



S.; A. H. Wiant, C. H.; James T. Hosford, P. 
S.; A. C. Cotton, R. A. C; John Kline, Treas.; 
Caspar Voll, Sec-.; Henry Grote, M, 3d V.; Ed- 
gar Stephens. M. 2d V: William T. Reed. M. 
1st V.; L. C. Clark, Chaplain; I. S. Ward. 
Tiler. — Wm. H. Johnson. 

INDEPENDENT LITERARY ASSOCIATION OF WHEATON. 

This association was permanently organized 
in November, 1880. by the adoption of a con- 
stitution and by-laws and the election of the 
following officers: Dr. L. Pratt, President; 
W. H. Johnson, Vice President; A. S. Lan- 
don, Recording Secretary; K. A. Patrick, 
Corresponding Secretary; L. E. De Wolf. 
Treasurer; E. H. Gammon, Marshal; and 
other officers to carry out its objects. The 
originators had in view the establishment of 
a society not controlled by any special inter- 
est except that of the general public good in 
mutual improvement in science and literature. 
It is also hoped and expected that amongst 
its future uses will be the establishment of a 
reading room, winter courses of popular lect- 
ures, and a public library. For two winters 
following its organization, the society has 
provided for a number of public lectures and 
other literary public meetings, which have 
proved of interest to many citizens. 

Its constitution provides for debates, es- 
says and addresses at stated intervals. 

Its membership has increased within the 
past year, and an interest in its utility is de- 
veloped to such a degree that its permanent 
establishment as an important element of 
progress in cultivating moral and intellectual 
attainment is looked upon as a fixture. Its 
meetings are suspended during the extremely 
hot weather and short evenings, and renewed 
with increased interest when summer is over. 

Present officers: George Brown, Presi- 
dent; S. W. Moffatt. Vice President; A. S. 
Landon, Recording Secretary: J Grove. 



Treasurer; L. H. Wills, Corresponding Sec- 
retary: E. W. Fisher, Marshal. — L. Pratt. 

The Sunday school is an institution which, 
like many other kindred societies, originated 
in New England, and from thence it was car- 
ried to every hamlet in America where the 
representative Yankee has planted himself to 
stay. In all Western towns, the question is 
not, Will the Sunday school come? or Has it 
come? but Who brought it first? 

The honor of doing this at Wheaton be- 
longs to Alvin Seamans. He settled here in 
1839, having come from Pomfret, Conn., the 
home of the Wheatons and Garys, through 
whose example he came to the place, and 
with him came Hezekiah Holt, all the way, 
with a team. 

The school was established in 1850, at a 
schoolhouse where divine service was held by 
the Wesleyan and Episcopal Methodists, each 
occupying it by turns, in those utilitarian 
days, when no good thing was allowed to de- 
cay for want of use. This schoolhouse stands 
a little west of the old Meacham place, and 
went by the name of the Wheaton School- 
house. Old Father Kimball, Mr. Bates, Mr. 
Curtis and Mr. Holt, besides the Wheatons, 
Garys and a few others, were then the chief 
patrons of this " kind of an omnibus school- 
house," whose seats hardly had time to cool 
between the varied sessions with which they 
were occupied. 

Mr. Seamans was Superintendent of this 
Sunday school, and Mr. H. H. Fuller. Secre- 
tary. A library of 100 volumes was obtained, 
and subsequently, with the school itself, 
transferred to Wheaton Institute, then under 
the charge of the Wesleyans, which, a few 
years later, became Wheaton College. The 
old house has had an erratic history, hav- 
ing, after it was no longer wanted for a 
schoolhouse, been moved half a mile west for 



188 



HISTOBY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



a farmhouse, next a mile east for the dwell- 
ing of a citizen of Wheaton, and lastly was 
moved from thence to become the home of 
Mrs. Bender, widow of him whose fatal fall 
from a building terminated his life a few 
years ago. 

It is not too much to say that no other 
building in Wheaton has been the abiding 
place of such versatile experiences. Peda- 
gogues, pupils, preachers and people have 
had their day within its walls, since which 
time many a rollicking baby has first seen the 
light of day under its venerable roof. It is 
the oldest building in Wheaton, and still 
standing in reasonably good order. The 
next generation may whittle it up into charms 
to dispel the misty shrouds that hover around 
their way, if they don't inherit a good foun- 
dation from us on which to build their hopes 
of prosperity and happiness here. 

WHEATON SCHOOLS. 

In almost all newly settled places, the first 
schoolhouses are built by subscription. It is 
as natural that this should be so as it is for 
children to grow in these same new settle- 
ments and multiply their numerical strength, 
and they do this so quickly in these great, 
broad creations of sea room that their parents 
are compelled to make provision for their ed- 
ucation before the slow machinery of govern- 
ment gets into working order and builds 
schoolhouses with public money accumulated 
by taxation. 

Wheaton was like other new places, and, 
when the endless chain of time had turned uj) 
the figures 1847, a bevy of buxom boys and 
lithe girls were hop-skipping and jumping 
about, and stood in need of something be- 
sides chimney-corner discipline. 

In this emergency, their fathers built a 
schoolhouse and hired a teacher to apply the 
discipline, while ABC, etc., were taught. 



It was erected on the land of Alonzo Crosby. 
This was the honorable pioneer schoolhouse 
of Wheaton, who, though now far outgrown 
of such unpretentious public buildings, 
nevertheless cherishes the memory of them 
with kindly retrospections. This old school- 
house was for seven years the seat of learn- 
ing and the fine arts at the place, and within 
its walls young minds took their first bent, 
and genius aspired to high aims in life, 
though perhaps incased in sunburnt skins. 
In 1854, a new schoolhouse was built by pub- 
lic money, the contract being let to J. G. Val- 
lette, for which he received $750. 

Eight years later, a second building was 
erected, for the primary department, the orig- 
iginal one being too small to seat the increas- 
ing number of children. 

Iu 1863, the first one was burned, and the 
school was transferred to the basement of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, where it re- 
mained till the graded schoolhouse which now 
ornaments the town was built, the finishing 
of which bears date of June 6, 1874. J. C. 
Wheaton, E. Gary and W. K. Guild were 
the Building Committee. It has six large 
school rooms and two recitation rooms, be- 
sides the basement, which could be utilized 
for additional school rooms should necessity 
require it. 

The school is graded in its course of study 
according to the formula of other first-class 
graded schools. Mrs. Frankie Wheaton Sny- 
der is Principal; Miss N. E. Cole, teacher of 
grammar; Miss L. E. Wheaton has charge of 
the intermediate course; Miss E. T. Miller is 
Second Principal; and Miss E. D. Knight 
has charge of the primary department. 

JOURNALISM IN WHEATON. 

It is quite difficult, at this time, owing to 
adverse circumstances, to procure correct data 
and particulars as to the first publication of a 





'CL/ 
88 YEARS OLD. 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



191 



newspaper in Wheaton. So far as the writer 
knows, there are no files available of the news- 
papers published prior to 1861, having been 
destroyed by fire or lost. 

A newspaper was being published at Na- 
perville, then the county seat, but the citi- 
zens of Wheaton, avillage on the Galena Di- 
vision of the Chicago & North-Western Rail- 
road, believing the interests of their town de- 
manded such an enterprise, determined to aid 
and assist any one who would make the vent- 
ure. Sufficient encouragement being given, 
in the month of June, 1856, Leonard E. De 
Wolf, a prominent lawyer and a large real 
estate owner, purchased a hand press and 
printing materials of S. P. Rounds & Co., of 
Chicago, and commenced the publication of 
the Du Page Comity Gazette, employing J. 
A. J. Birdsall as foreman and associate edi- 
tor. It was published about a year, when it 
was discontinued. 

After that, a gentleman from Chicago by 
the name of Nathaniel H. Lewis undertook 
to resurrect the newspaper enterprise by 
starting the Wheaton Flag. But this paper 
led a precarious life, and, about the year 
1860, was burned out, the fire supposed to 
have been the work of an incendiary. We 
have no knowledge whether the paper was 
resurrected after the fire. 

In June, 1861, Henry C. Childs, a public- 
spirited gentleman, commenced the publica- 
tion of the Northern, Illinoian, and remained 
proprietor of it for six years. The paper was 
not a financial success, but was one of the 
best-conducted papers at that time in North- 
ern Illinois, and had much to do in bringing 
Wheaton and Du Page County into promi- 
nent notice. It was during his administra- 
tion of the paper that the county seat fight 
culminated, and no doubt was facilitated on 
account of his zealous efforts. His brother- 
in-law, Philander Parmalee, was in his em- 



ploy, as well as William Marriott and John 
A. Whitlock. 

During the years 1862 and 1864, Benjamin 
F. Taylor, the well-known author and poet, 
was connected with the Illinoian as its lit- 
erary editor. The paper was very much 
sought after on that account, and obtained 
an enviable reputation. 

In April, 1867, H. C. Childs sold out to 
John A. Whitlock, who successfully conduct- 
ed it up of the 16th of April, 1870, when, 
owing to ill health, it was sold to the present 
editor and proprietor, J. Russell Smith, 
changed to the name of Wheaton Illinoian. 

At the time of the starting of the paper, in 
1861, by H. C. Childs, it was made a seven- 
column paper. December 7, 1864, it was en- 
larged to an eight-column. In 1868, John A. 
Whitlock reduced it in size to a six-column, 
enlarging it to a seven-column the same year. 
January 1, 1876, the present owner enlarged 
it to an eight-column, which size it still re- 
tains. 

The Illinoian is and has always been a 
Republican paper, fearless in defending the 
right, but charitable in allowing all parties a 
fair hearing, zealously looking af ter the local 
and general interests of the county. 

In addition to the Illinoian, there is pub- 
lished in Wheaton a literary sixteen-page 
monthly entitled the College Record, Liter- 
ary Union of Wheaton College, publishers; 
established 1865 — J. Russell Smith. 

WHEATON BUSINESS DIRECTORY. 

Attorneys— N. E. Gary, E. H. Gary, C. L. 
Blanchard, W. G. Smith, L. E. De Wolf, 
Col. J. W. Bennei 

Abstract of Titles— J. G. Valletta 

Banks — Gary & Wheaton. 

Blacksmiths — A. Michels, C. W. Watson, 
McDonald, H. Egers. 

Barber — John Lawler. 



192 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Clergymen — Rev. J. Blanchard, Rev. J. B. 
Walker, Rev. A. H. Hiatt, Rev. L. N. Strat- 
ton, Rev. C. F. Hawley, Rev. W. W. Stew- 
art, Rev. I. A. Hart, Rev. W. O. Hart, Rev. 
H. W. Cobb, Rev. H. Fischer, Rev. A. G. Hib- 
bard, Rev. E. M. Boring, Rev. C. W. G. Koch, 
Rev. C. A. Blanchard, Rev. J. C. Webster. 

Coal Dealer— H. H. Fuller. 

Carpenters— A. T. Childs, C. W. Miller, 
D. Compton, J. Homer, C. Louts. 

Carriage Painter and Trimmer — G. W, 
Matthan. 

Carpet- Weavers — Mr. Arakelian, Martha 
Blair. 

Dry Goods and Groceries — A.. S. Landon & 
Co., Grote Bros., Cole & Guild, J. B. Colvin. 

Druggist — L. L. Hiatt, W. A. Henninger. 

Dentists — J. H. Ashley, P. Learn. 

Dress-Making- -Misses Nash, Mrs. Sals- 
bury, Mrs. Vernon, Mrs. I. Lewis, Miss 0. 
Scofield. 

Furniture-Dealer — Conrad Kampp. 

Grain -Dealers— Sutcliffe & Kelly. 

Groceries and Confectionery — W. Mi liner, 
J. H. Vallette, E. W. Bixby, L. W. Mills. 

Hardware — John Sauer, H & E. B. Holt, 

Hotels— M. Stark, M. Rickert. 

House and Sign Painters — William Schatz, 
George Hagermann. 

House-Moving — M. E. Jones. 

Harness-Makers — Binder Bros. 

Insurance — J. G. Vallette, Wm L. Gary. 

Jewelers — L. C. Brown, A. Alberts. 

Livery Stables — Durland & Congleton, E. 
H. Ehle. 

Lumber-Dealers— W. K. Guild, Sutcliffe 
& Kelly. 

Laundry- -Mrs. J. Wright. 

Landscape Gardener and Florist — Joseph 
Stanford. 

Boot and Shoe Makers — A. Rau, G. Esten- 
felter, O. Horner. 

Merchant Tailor — H. Garlic, F. Kusousky. 



Meat Markets — C. A. Sohmer, Thoman & 
Webber. 

Masons and Builders — A. Austin, C. Gates, 
J. Knippen. 

Millinery — Misses Nash, Mrs. West. 

Music Teachers — (vocal) S. W. Martin, 
(instrumental) S. W. Martin, Miss Nettie 
Pratt. 

Nurserymen — A. H. Hiatt, O. F. Lumery, 
J. C. Wheaton. 

Publishers — R. Blanchard, J. R Smith. 

Printers — J. R. Smith, A. L. Hamilton, 
F. Miner. 

Postmaster —George B. Vastine. 

Photographer — Charles L. Kersting. 

Physicians and Surgeons — L. E Pratt, F. 
N. Englehard, A. H. Hiatt, S. P. Sedgwick, 
E. Vogeler. 

Painting and Drawing— Mrs. S. H Nut- 
ting, Miss Flora Mills. 

Real. Estate Agents — C. P. J. Arion, H. 
W. Cobb, J. Russell Smith. 

Restaurants— W. Mi liner, E. W. Bixby. 

Surveyors — J. G. Vallette, A. S. Landon. 

Station Agent— H. H. Fuller. 

Telegraph Operators — Charles Fuller, M. 
E. Griswold. 

Tinners— J. P. Sauer, H. & E. B. Holt. 

Veterinary Surgeon — J. H. Brown. 

Wagons and Carriages — William H. John- 
son, A. Stephens, S. Ott, F. Man. 

WHEATON CREAMERY COMPANY. 

Organized February 10, 1882. Capital 
stock, $7,000. James S. Peirronet, President; 
E. H. Gary, Vice President; H. H. Fuller, 
Secretary; J. J. Cole, Treasurer. Brick 
building, 36x75 feet; cost, with fixtures and 
grounds, $7,500. All late improvements, 
including the wire circular vat, Frazier 
gang press (which will press twenty cheeses 
at once), and the Mason revolving butter- 
worker. The milk is conducted from the re- 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



193 



ceiving room into vats in the cooling room, 
where the cream is raised. Then the milk is 
drawn from under the cream and carried 
through conductor pipes to cheese vats in the 
manufacturing room. Water is supplied by 
two wells, one twenty feet, the other 1 5 feet 
deep. Capacity of factory is 16,000 pounds 
of milk per day. 

The interior of the building was planned 
by Mr. J. J. Cole, and is entirely different 
from any factory in the State. 

PROSPECT PARK. 

Prospect Park is a village on the western 
fringe of Babcock's Grove. It grew into be- 
ing as a station on the G. & C. U. R. R. Dr. 
L. V. and his brother Lensa Newton bought 
land here of "William Churchill previous to 
1849, and when the railroad came through, 
Dr. Newton built a depot. David Kelly kept 
it, and also a tavern and post office in the 
same building He had formerly, in 1847, 
kept a post office on his farm, three miles to 
the north. He also has the honor of giving 
the name of Danby to the place, this being 
the same name he had given to a town in 
Rutland County, Vt, ere he came West. He 
lived to see it changed to its present name, 
much to his regret 

Messrs. Standish & Saylor, in 1853, opened 
the first store at the place. The old depot 
was about this time moved away by the 
owner, and a new one erected by the railroad 
company, which still stands. The original 
one, after it had been moved, was occupied 
for various uses till it had executed its 
mission, and was lastly moved to get it out of 
the way, which was about the year 1802. 
Undecided what disposition to make of it, 
the rickety old structure was allowed to re- 
main on a side-hill, where it stood for some 
months, like the leaning tower of Pisa — a 
slipshod monument of early days, as well as 



a target for jokes from railroad passengers 
who beheld it. The site of this town is un- 
equaled by any other in the county in na- 
ture's variety of oval hillocks, rising one 
above another, all underlaid by a substratum 
of gravel, and fanned by tbe breezes from the 
adjacent grove. It was platted May 20, 1854, 
by L. V. Newton, situate on Section 11, 
Township 39, Range 10. Its elevation above 
Lake Michigan is 162 feet. 

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF PROSPECT PARK. 

This church was organized April 15, 1862. 
After the ceremonies of organization, thirteen 
persons united — Mr. H B. Gilford and wife, 
A. Standish and wife, S. Ventassel and wife, 
! J. P. Yalding and wife, Mrs. Cornelia 
Brooks, Miss Emily Brooks and Mrs. R. Rud- 
dock. Church services were held at Stacy's 
Corners until February, 1863, when the 
building was moved to its site. Rev. E. N. 
Lewis was the first pastor. Nearly one hun- 
dred persons have united with the church 
since its organization, but many have died, 
and others have left the place; not quite half 
of that number are members to-day. Three 
of the original members — Mr. and Mrs. J. 
P. Yalding and Mrs. C. Brooks — are regular 
attendants on ~all church services. The 
Wednesday evening prayer meeting has been 
sustained ever since the organization, and a 
ladies' prayer meeting for a few years. 

The church is in a prosperous condition, 
all of its services being well attended. 

Prof. H A. Fischer, of Wheaton College, 
has supplied the pulpit since the last of May. 
The Sabbath scuool has a membership of 
over one hundred. 

THE FREE METHODIST CHURCH. 

The Free Methodist Church at Prospect 
Park grew into being in 1880, but yot the 
material which composed it had been accu- 



194 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



inulating for years prior to that date. The 
immediate action that gave birth to it was 
a series of meetings held by Rev. J. E. Cole- 
man and Rev. J. D. Marsh, and, under the 
pastoral charge of the latter, the church was 
organized from the converts of this series of 
meetings. At the expiration of Mr. Marsh's 
term — one year — Rev. William Ferris became 
pastor, who was succeeded the next year by 
Rev. James Sprague, the present pastor. 

The above statistics have been furnished 
to the editor by Miss Rose Weidman, Clerk 
of the church. 

The Prospect Park Library Association is 
a stock company of twenty members, similar 
to the one at Wheaton, kept at A. S. Lan- 
don's. The books are Harper's publications, 
and the Librarian's report shows that the 
books are read and appreciated by the mem- 
bers. They intend to make an effort this 
winter to purchase more books and increase 
their membership, so as to get more American 
publications. The officers of the association 
are: P. G. Hubbard, President; F. W. Stacy, 
Vice President; W. Sabin, Secretary; W. H. 
Luther, Treasurer; and Miss Georgiana 
Allen, Librarian. 



NAMES OF THE BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL 
MEN OF PROSPECT PARK. 

Luther Winter, dealer in feed and coal. 
W. H. Luther, agent for the C. &. N. W. 
R. R, 

Miles Allen, store and post office. 

P. G. Hubbard, dealer in broom corn. 

William H. Wayne, blacksmith. 

M. H. Wayne, wheelwright. 

Nelson Dodge, carpenter and builder. 

Brake & Myers, carpenters and builders. 

Will Jellies, carpenter and builder. 

J. R. McChesney & Co., general store. 

H. Wegman, general store. 

Allen R. Walker, tinshop and hardware. 

E. Graff, hotel. 

John Weidman, broom factory. 

John Hayden, store. 

Frank Walworth, stone mason. 

G. M. H. Wayner, commission store. 

R. Blackman, dealer on Board of Trade. 

John Sabin, boot and shoe shop. 

Aug Bregson, boot and shoe shop. 

J. S. Dodge, retired farmer. 

L. C. Cooper, attorney at law. 

James Sanders, M. D. 



CHAPTER IX. 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP — THE OLD INDIAN BOUNDARY — CASS — PIERCE DOWNER - 

THOMAS ANDRUS — CHICAGO REMINISCENCES — THE VILLAGE OF HINSDALE— BRUSH 

HILL MEMORIES — CLARENDON HILLS— FREDERICKSBURG — DOWNERS 

GROVE VILLAGE— AN OX TEAM HITCHED TO AN OAK LOG— WHAT 

GREW OUT OF IT — THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP includes 
the Government Township described as 
Town 38, Range 11, and also the three north- 
ern tiers of sections northwest of the Desplaiues 
River, in Town 37, Range 11, the portions lying 
in Town 37 being unofficially known and de- 
scribed as Cass. 



The whole of Downer's Grove, except Sec- 
tions 5, 6, 7 and the diagonal halves of 4, 8 
and 18, lies southeast of the old Indian Bound- 
ary line, and was surveyed by the Government 
between the j'ears 1829 (at which time sur- 
veys were commenced at Chicago) and 1835. 
the year of the Government sale of these lands. 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



195 



Besides this Indian Boundary line was another 
running parallel with it twenty miles southeast 
of it, both of which extended from Lake Mich- 
igan to the Illinois River at Ottawa. The strip 
inclosed bj - these lines had been ceded to the 
United States August 4, 1816, by the Ottawas, 
Chippewas and Pottawatomies, particulars of 
which have been stated in a former chapter. 
Through this belt of land the Illinois and Michi- 
gan Canal was located, and the alternate sections 
for five miles on each side of it were donated 
to the State of Illinois, to aid in its construc- 
tion. Portions of these donated lands laid in 
Downer's Grove, and were sold by the Canal 
Commissioners, but were not offered for sale 
till some years after the sale of the Govern- 
ment lands, which took place in June, 1835. 

Many of the early settlers of Downer's Grove 
were purchasers both of Government and Canal 
lands. 

Very few of them were land claimants, but 
bona fide purchasers from the first. Mr. 
Downer, whose history is told in connection 
with the village of Downer's Grove, was the 
first settler of this town. Many other pioneers 
of this town are also mentioned in connection 
with the historj' of its villages, but one of them, 
who had no participation in village building, 
deserves a page on account of his experiences, 
which are so representative of life here in the 
early day. This was Thomas Andrus, born in 
Rutland County, Vt., from whence he inherited 
those inflexible traits of character that are 
almost certain to make a man pull through 
difficulties. He was born in 1801 ; came to Chi- 
cago December 1, 1833; couldn't find anything 
to do, and started back toward sunrise on foot, 
but before he had arrived to the Calumet, a 
man hired him to drive an ox team. This oc- 
cupation lasted till the next j'ear, 1834, when 
a venturesome man determined to erect a three- 
story hotel on the northwest corner of Lake 
and Dearborn street, and carpenters were 
wanted. Of course he was a carpenter ; he 



was a Yankee, and that meant a carpenter just 
then. The next winter it might have meant a 
pedagogue, but whatever it means it always 
means the best of the kind wanted. 

Mr. Andrus went to work and filled the bill 
satisfactorily, and there is evidence that he was 
above par in the estimation of his employer ; 
for when the frame of his building was up, Mr. 
Andrus suggested to him to call his magnifi- 
cent three-story -hotel the Tremont House, after 
the still celebrated house of that name in Bos- 
ton. His advice was taken, and the name has 
been transmitted to the third generantion of 
Tremont Houses ; the present one on the corner 
diagonally opposite where the first was built in 
1834, being the third in succession, the second 
one having been burned in the great fire of 
1871. The first one had a billiard table in the 
third stor3', which then overlooked the whole 
one and two-story town. Dearborn street was 
then the great thoroughfare to the North Side, 
to which it was connected by a draw-bridge 
that lifted perpendicularly by means of wind- 
lasses, but when the next bridge came to be 
built, the Clark streeters subscribed the most 
and won the prize, for money then " made the 
mare go " as well as now, and it made the 
bridge go. 

Now, let us take Mr. Andrus through one 
more old way-mark in Chicago before he goes 
to settle. It is this : He assisted in driving 
the piles for the foundation of John H. 
Kinzie's warehouse in 1834, the first ever 
built in Chicago, and saw the first lot of 
wheat shipped from it that ever went East 
from the place. In the autumn of the 
same year, Mr. Andrus returned to Ver- 
mont, and the following spring (1835), came" 
back with his wife and three children, arriving 
at Chicago in June, and in July settled where 
he now lives, on Section 6, Town 37, Range 11. 
Shadrac Harris had preceded him a few weeks, 
and lived on Section 8, quite near him. Mr. 
Harris is now living at Marengo. 



190 



HISTORY OF DV PAGE COUNTY. 



Dr. Bronson lived on the Plainfield road, two 
miles to the Northeast. He was the first settler 
in the vicinit}'. Hartell Cobb lived a little 
west of Mr. Bronson. After Mr. Andrns had 
been settled six weeks, an election was held 
for Justice of the Peace, and he was one of the 
candidates. He came within one vote of being 
elected, his rival having three votes while he 
had but two. Mr. Harris, the fortunate wire- 
puller, was duly sworn in, but he had to go 
to Chicago where folks swore to be thus dubbed. 
The next term Mr. Andrus ran against the 
same man for the same office and was elected. 
and could have retained the office a second 
term had not his wife interfered. This tidy 
Vermont girl saw more tobacco juice than profit 
in it (for the trials were held in her parlor), and 
she requested her husband to decline a renoini- 
nation. His acquiescence was no mean exam- 
ple in favor of woman's rights. The first 
schools of the place, says Mr. Andrus, were 
taught in discarded private houses, whose own 
ers had built better ones, and Miss Nancy 
Stanley was the first teacher. She afterward 
married Mr. Bush, and subsequently Mr. Dryer 
for her second husband. 

Elder Beggs, the same who now lives in 
Plainfield, was their first preacher, and Gen. E. 
B. Bill, the same who got up a company for 
the Mexican war and died in the service, think- 
ing the Methodists had not been sufficiently 
generous with Father Beggs, got up a dona- 
tion party for him, which was well received 
by the devout itinerant, though it came 
from the world's people and not from his own 
flock. 

Mr. Andrus was appointed the first Postmas- 
ter of Cass Post Office, which was organized in 
1834. and held the position fifteen years, during 
which time 5 cents was reported to him as an 
error in his account. Several offices, away from 
the stage line of Mr. Frinck that passed his 
house, were supplied from his office by horse- 
back mail riders. Frinck's line had sixteen 



coaches each way per day. Of course he kept 
tavern in his new house, which he built in 1836, 
and in the dining-room dances were held. How 
were you on tip-toe ? asked the writer of Mrs. 
Andrus. Smiling through the honorable wrink- 
les of eighty years that furrowed her cheek, 
she replied, "Oh, I don't like to recommend 
myself." 

Edgar S., the fourth child of the family, was 
born after their settlement where they now are, 
and was the first white birth of this town. He 
is now one of its residents. 

The above, together with the history of the 
villages of this town, fully represents its pioneer 
days. There are thirteen schoolhouses in the 
town, three of which are graded, and 1,142 per- 
sons between the ages of six and twenty-one. 

THE VILLAGE OT HINSDALE. 

A sailor once said that he didn't see the need 
of any land except enough to build clocks to. 
His ideas, like some other people's, were limited 
to his own immediate wants. His whole sphere 
of human knowledge centered in himself. 

" His soul, proud science never taught to stray, 
Far as the solar walk and milky way." 

Nor even as far as 'tis from Chicago to Hins- 
dale, of which the latter is an outpost, a kind 
of retort, to catch the lovers of nature, and 
hold them among the delightful ranges of the 
place as they pass from the man-made city of 
Chicago, full of turmoil, inductions and seduc- 
tions, into the God-made country, full of 
" Ye banks and braes of Bonnie Doon." 

Here they bloom " fresh and fair," and leave 
no "thorn behind " to the peaceful citizen as he 
sleeps among them, fanned by the summer 
breath, as it moves over a broad heath of prairie 
farms and groves. 

The variegated hillocks, no two of which are 
alike, on which the town is laid out, seem to 
have been fashioned by the hand of nature for 
a kind of landscape village, and for nothing 
else, for its site never had been utilized for 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



197 



farming purposes before the village was born, 
with a silver spoon in its mouth, to use a met- 
aphor. But, first, let us tell some of the con- 
ditions of the place before the village came 
into existence. Alfred Walker came from 
Windsor County, Vt., to Brush Hill, just north 
of Hinsdale, in April, 1854. Here he found 
a little bevy of settlers nestling in an open- 
ing in the grove around two taverns, a 
store and a blacksmith shop. The old name 
of Brush Hill still clung to the place, and does 
yet, although Benjamin Fuller, three 3 r ears be- 
fore, had incorporated the town and officially 
named it Fullersburg. Mr. Walker bought all 
the land Mr. Fuller owned, and his tavern- 
stand, and became proprietor of the place. It 
had few permanent inhabitants, John Coe and 
Benjamin, Lewis and Reuben Fuller being all 
that Mr. Walker mentions as land owners. One 
of the taverns was a sort of catch-all for new- 
comers, where rooms were temporarily rented 
to them till a place to settle was found, and six 
or eight such families at a time held their tran- 
sient abodes there, where they baked their corn- 
bread and boiled their coffee with fuel gathered 
from the adjacent grove. Mr. Walker's pur- 
chase of Mr. Fuller included the land on which 
his house now stands, half a mile north of the 
depot, and here he built a farm house in 1858, 
in which he now lives, within the corporate 
limits of the town — a monument to link Hins- 
dale back to the pioneer times that preceded 
its present age. 

At that time, says Mr. Walker, there was not 
a house south of him for eight miles. All the 
lands were owned by speculators, and held at 
from $7 to $25 per acre. One tract, just over 
the line of Cook County, sold at auction in 
1854, for $5.25 per acre, and, says Mr. Walker, 
" up to 1862, wolves were often seen, and cau- 
tious mothers dared not send their little chil- 
dren into the groves after the cows." 

Two years later was planted the germ out of 
which Hinsdale grew into being. This was 



done by Mr. William Robbins, who, after he 
ftad purchased 800 acres of land, built the fine 
residence he now occupies, which was finished 
in February, 1864, being the first erected in the 
place. Mr. Robbins' purchase included»the 
west half of Section 7 in Cook County, besides 
Section 12, on which was the original plat of 
Hinsdale. The next year, he fenced in the 
whole tract for a stock farm, and the year after 
(1866), laid out the northwest quarter of Sec- 
tion 12 in lots, varj'ing in' size from one acre to 
lots of sixty-six feet frontage. The same year, 
the streets were graded, plank sidewalks laid 
and those first trees planted which now lend 
such a charm to the place. Rev. C. M. Barnes, 
the same who now has a large book-store in 
Chicago, bought the first lot of Mr. Robbins, 
and built a house on it, though the family of 
James Swartwout was the first one to come to 
the place after that of Mr. Robbins. 

Mr. Swartwout occupied one of Mr. Robbins' 
houses. The golden wedding of this vener- 
able pair was celebrated at Hinsdale in July, 
1882. 

In 1866, Mr. Robbins built a stone school- 
house, which, at the time was deemed too large 
for present or even future use, but, in 1880, an 
addition was erected beside it, doubling its ca- 
pacity, and the two combined are now barely 
sufficient to accommodate the multiplying wants 
of the place, where education of the rising 
generation is a prominent interest, and where a 
united public sentiment has provided not 
only a model schoolhouse, but model teachers 
and a school exemplary in its grade and dis- 
cipline. 

In 1866, Mr. 0. J. Stough bought eighty 
acres, being the south half of the northwest 
quarter of Section 1, and the next year he 
bought the southeast quarter of Section 11. 
160 acres, and the next year, 1868, by various 
purchases, he bought the most of Estabrook's 
addition to Hinsdale, lying in the southeast 
quarter of Section 2, and the next year, I860, 



198 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



he bought about one hundred and thirty-seven 
acres lying in Section 10 — all the above 
purchases situate in Town 38, Range 11, and 
largely on the north side of railroad track, 
aloig those beautiful terraced elevations that 
rise one above another till the groves of Old 
Brush Hill are reached, and on May 19, 1868, 
1868, his first addition to Hinsdale was re- 
corded, and his second addition June 2. 

Besides making these purchases and sub- 
dividing portions of them, Mr. Stough built a 
church on the north side in 1868, and Rev. 
William Balch, a present citizen and highly 
esteemed minister of the Gospel at Elgin, was 
pastor of this church for two years. A Bible 
class was connected with it of which Hon. Joel 
Tiffany, a present resident of Hinsdale, held 
charge. Neither the church nor the Bible-class 
were working under any name, but their inde- 
pendent teachings partook of the broad type of 
natural religion. Many of the first patrons of 
the church left the place after Mr. Balch's 
term had expired, and services were suspended 
in it about a year thereafter. 

The first addition made by Mr. Robbins to 
the original town was called W. Robbins' First 
Addition. The second was W. Robbins' Park 
Addition. The latter was laid out by H. W. S. 
Cleveland, Landscape Gardener. 

After making a thorough stud}' of the oval 
elevations and graduating valleys of the place, 
he laid out streets, threading their way among 
them in scroll-shaped curves, the better to 
heighten their scenic effect, and that he suc- 
ceeded admirably in his effort, the present 
natural and artificial beaut}' of the place bears 
ample evidence. Mansions, birds-nest houses, 
hedge rows, conservatories, vine-clad arbors 
and graveled walks interlacing the ground on 
which they stand, have put the finishing touch 
on the whole. 

This is Hinsdale as it is — cheery, beautiful 
and healthful, from both social and physical 
causes. 



THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH AT HINSDALE.* 

The Congregationalists residing in Hinsdale 
organized themselves into a church, consisting 
of ten members, August 12, 1866, which was 
duly recognized by a council of neighboring 
churches October 16 of the same year. Mr. 
C. M. Sanders, a student of the Chicago Theo- 
logical Seminary, commenced to preach regu- 
larly in the place a few weeks before the 
organization of the church. He was ordained 
by a council in April, 1867, and continued 
acting pastor of the church till the close of 
1868. 

During his ministry, thirty-five members 
were added to the original number, and their 
place of worship was changed from the passen- 
ger depot to Academy Hall. 

During several succeeding months, the church 
was dependent for a supply of its pulpit prin- 
cipally on students of the Theological Sem- 
inary. 

In October, 1869, Rev. F. Bascom, then of 
Princeton, 111., accepted their invitation and 
became their resident pastor. He remained in 
charge of the church till May, 1872. He was 
succeeded by Rev. J. W. Hartshorn, who en- 
tered upon his work in November of that year, 
and remained till the close of 1875. 

From the 1st of February succeeding, Mr. 
Crow, from the Theological School at Evans- 
ton, was in charge of the church for six 
months. 

In the autumn of 1876, Rev. William 
Butcher was engaged as pastor for one year, 
and continued his ministry till December, 
1877. 

The Rev. Mr. Hartshorn, who on retiring 
from this place, had taken charge of the Con- 
gregational Church in Naperville, was now re- 
called, and remained as pastor two years, from 
May, 1878. 

In the summer of 1880, Rev. John Ellis be- 
gan his labors as pastor of the church, which 

♦Contributed by Rev. Flavel Bascom. 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



199 



have thus far been attended with growing in- 
terest. 

In 1873, the congregation, needing a more 
commodious place of worship, commenced the 
erection of a stone edifice ; but when the 
walls had reached the height of the basement 
story, the approach of winter and an empty 
treasury, suggested the propriety of postpon- 
ing the erection of the upper story, and the 
finishing of a lecture-room under a temporary 
roof. In that room the congregation has found 
comfortable accommodations for more than 
eight years. 

In the summer of 1881, an effort to complete 
this house of worship was resumed, and pros- 
ecuted with the most gratifying unanimity and 
liberality. But unforeseen difficulties and 
hindrances delayed the work and postponed 
its completion till August, 1882. It was dedi- 
cated to the worship of God on the 6th day of 
that month, free from debt. 

In its origin and history hitherto, this church 
has sought to cherish the spirit and to exem- 
plify the principles of union among evangelical 
Christians of every name. It has been toler- 
ant of unessential doctrines in its membership. 
For a long time it united with another church 
in the place, in sustaining public worship and 
the various forms of Christian work. It has 
always welcomed Christians of ever}- name to 
its fellowship in the privileges and labors of its 
own members, and its prosperity has been 
greatl} - promoted by such co-operation. For 
the second time it has a pastor ecclesiastically 
connected with another denomination ; but his 
ministry is none the less satisfactory and prof- 
itable to Congregationalists, while it tends to 
obliterate all denominational distinctions in the 
community. 

The whole number of members connected 
with the church since its origin, is 153. Its 
present membership, exclusive of absentees, is 
eighty-four, of whom fifty-two have been re- 
ceived in the last two years. 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH AT HINSDALE. 

A Baptist Church was organized in Hinsdale 
in 1868. For several months it had no pastor, 
and has preserved no record of its transactions. 

In October, 1869, Rev. James Lisk accepted an 
invitation to the pastorate of the church, and be- 
gan his ministry the first Sabbath of that month. 
Their place of public worship was the wait- 
ing room of the railroad passenger depot, where 
he preached to them very acceptably till the 
spring of the following year, when his accept- 
ance of a call to a larger field left them again 
as sheep without a shepherd. 

In the meantime, they had undertaken the 
erection of a house of worship, the expense of 
which overtaxed their resources, and subse- 
quently involved them in great embarrassment. 

After the completion of their house, they were 
unable to carry the pecuniary burdens which 
they had assumed, and, at the same time, pro- 
vide for the salary of a pastor. They, there- 
fore, invited the Congregationalists to worship 
with them, who accepted the invitation, and 
both churches united in the support of the 
Congregational Pastor. In many respects this 
arrangement was profitable and satisfactor}- 
and was continued till May, 1872, when it was 
discontinued b} r mutual consent. During the 
next year the church had no regular supply of 
their pulpit, but depended principally on the 
Professors and students of the Baptist Theo- 
logical Seminary of Chicago. 

In June, 1873, Rev. George Kline became 
their Pastor, and for about a jear labored ear- 
nestly and faithfully to promote the interests of 
the church and community. But his people 
then consented regretful^ to his removal, be- 
ing unable longer to pay him the requisite sal- 
ary. And in the prevailing financial embar- 
rassment which was then so disastrous, their 
house of worship passed out of their hands 
irrecoverably. The}' were already depleted in 
numbers by deaths and removals as well :i* 

* By Rev. FIhtcI Bancoiu. 



200 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



diminished in resources. And now the loss of 
their house, added to their former reverses, was 
so discouraging that they voted to disband, 
and authorized their Clerk to give letters of 
dismission to other churches to their few re- 
maining members. 

GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF HINSDALE* 

In the spring of 1873, a few of the citizens 
of Hinsdale, viz., Messrs. Stuart, Notingham, 
Maydwell, Chant, Slocum, Crocker and Payne, 
met at the house of D. J. Crocker to organize 
the Grace Episcopal Sunday School, of which 
Mr. J. P. Stuart was chosen Superintendent, 
and which formed the foundation for the parish 
which was organized March 31, 1875, under the 
name of Grace Episcopal. Easter services had 
been held previous to this date in the base- 
ment of the Congregational Church, but no 
parish meeting was held till March 31, 1875, 
when Alfred Payne and Robert Slocum were 
elected Wardens, and John Ohls, William B. 
Maydwell and J. P. Stuart were elected Vestry- 
men. At the vestry meeting following the ad- 
journment of the parish meeting, John Ohls 
was chosen Treasurer ; J. F. Stuart, Secretary, 
and Alfred Payne, Lay-reader. The services 
of the Rev. N. F. Tuson were also engaged, and 
for the space of one year he acted as priest-in- 
charge, allowing us one service a month. 

After his resignation, the same arrangement 
was made with the Rev. Mr. Fiske, of Naper- 
ville, who officiated the last Sunday in each 
month till August 26, 1878, when, pursuant to 
a call from the parish, the Rev. D. F. Smith, 
of Champaign, 111., came to Hinsdale as Asso- 
ciate of the Rev. Mr. Fiske, upon whose resig- 
nation Mr. Smith became priest-in-charge, in 
which capacity he remained, holding three 
services a month in the building known as 
"The Old Baptist Church," till June 11, 1881, 
when he resigned, and services for a time were 
entirely suspended. 

*By William C Payne. 



During the first period of Mr. Smith's charge, 
the church seemed prosperous and progressive, 
but toward the latter part, that discord which 
affects, more or less, all religious bodies, crept 
in and nearly ruined the work which had been 
done before. 

On the last Sunday in January, 1882, serv- 
ices were recommenced in the room known as 
Rath's Hall, where the Rev. Mr. Perry officiated 
on the second Sunda\ r of each month following, 
and in March the Rev. Mr. Lewis, of La Grange, 
as the Associate of Mr. Perry, agreed to hold 
services on the last Sundaj* of each month, on 
the remaining Sundays being lay services, read 
by Alfred Payne. Up to this date, services 
have so continued, and there is every prospect 
of a church edifice being erected soon, on the 
land northeast of the Congregational Church, 
which has been donoted for building purposes 
by the kindness of Mr. William Robbins. 

SCHOOLS OF HINSDALE. 

In 1866, when much of the real estate of Hins- 
dale was owned by Messrs. William Robbins, 0. 
J. Stough and J. I. Case, of Racine, Mr. Robbins 
built the first school building in Hinsdale — a 
three room stone building having two rooms 
below and one above. The two lower rooms 
only were used for school purposes for some 
time, the upper room being used as town 
hall. 

In the lower room, Miss Stocking taught a 
subscription school, with one assistant, till the 
fall of 1867, when it was organized into a pub- 
lic school as a branch of the Fullersburg Dis- 
trict. The Directors chosen were Messrs. 
Plummer, B. P. Hinds and William R. Banker, 
and Mr. B. F. Banker was appointed Principal. 
The following year the building was bought of 
Mr. Robbins for the sum of $8,000, and Mr. 
Gleason received the appointment as Principal. 
The same year, that portion lying south of the 
C, B. & Q. R. R., was formed into a separate 
district, and so it remained till the year 1877, 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



201 



while P. A. Downey was principal, when all 
that portion lying north of the C, B. & Q. 
track, and included within the corporation of 
Hinsdale, was united with the south side. 
After Mr. Downey, Mr. R. A. Robinson became 
Principal of the school, with two assistants, 
and the following year, 1879, an extensive ad- 
dition was made to the building at an expense 
of about $6,000. Mr. Robinson taught three 
years, and before his resignation the school be- 
came very prosperous, giving em ployment to five 
teachers. Mr. E. L. Harpham succeeded Mr. 
Robinson, and under his charge the school still 
continued to increase, and much interest was 
taken in it, not only by those sending children, 
but also by others. 

Upon the resignation of Mr. Harpham, the 
care of the school devolved upon Mr. F. C. 
Cole, an Ann Arbor graduate, who was chosen 
by the present Directors, Messrs. R. A. Childs, 
John Bradley and C. H. Hudson. 

Mr. Cole is assisted by four teachers, and 
the building is nearly filled with pupils, many 
of whom are children of those residents who 
have but lately made Hinsdale their home. 
— William C. Payne. 

Hinsdale Lodge, No. 6^9, A., F. & A. M.— 

This lodge began work under dispensation 
granted by Grand Master Harmon G. Reynolds, 
March 19, 1870, and held its first meeting 
March 24, 1870, in Academy Hall, D. A. 
Courter acting W. M. ; J. M. Barr, S. W., and 
N. H. Warren, J. H. 

The charter was granted by the Grand Lodge 
October 4, 1870, the following-named being 
charter members : D. A. Courter, J. M. Barr, 
N. H. Warren, F. H. Rogers, William Blan- 
chard, L. E. Gifford, I. L. Hinds, C. T. Plum- 
mer, S. A. Coe, B. Plummer, Charles Fox, J . 
H. Alexander, B. E. Terrill, W. R, Banker, 
Eben Millions and George H. Bnrtt. 

The first meeting under the charter was held 
January 5, 1871, when the lodge was consti- 
tuted by G. W. Barnard, Deputy Grand Master, 



and the following persons were installed as 
officers : 

D. A. Courter, W. M. ; J. M. Barr, S. 
W. ; N. H. Warren, J. W. ; Charles Fox, 
Treasurer; Charles T. Plummer, Secretary ; L. 
E. Gifford, S. D. ; B. E. Terrill, J. D., and Eben 
Millions, Tyler. 

The lodge moved into a new hall, purchased 
and fitted up by them January 2, 1873, but the 
panic compelled them to relinquish this and 
secure smaller and less expensive quarters over 
Fox Bros, store, in the spring of 1878, where 
the " three great lights " still burn. 

The present officers of the lodge are William 
Duncan, W. M. ; A. L. Pearsall, S. W. ; A. S. 
Johnston, J. W. ; Charles Fox, Treasurer ; A. 
G. Butler, Secretary ; F. A. Rice, S. D. ; George 
H. Burtt, J. D. ; E. Millions, Tyler. 

The present membership is twenty-eight, 
among whom are eight of the charter members. 
The others have passed be3 r ond, and have been 
consigned to the earth by their brethren in the 
full belief that they had found the perfection 
of light, and reached the last and highest 
degree. — A. L. Pearsall. 

Hinsdale Lodge, A. 0. U. W.,No. 182, organ- 
ized April 16, 1881. 

P. M. W., George H. Talmadge ; M. W., J. 
B. R. Lespinasse ; Foreman, Adolph Froscher ; 
Overseer, J. H. Papenhauseu ; Recorder, James 
W. Sucher ; Financier, J. C. Merrick ; Guide, 
Philip Bayer ; Inside Watchman, Henry Heiuke; 
Outside Watchman, George Trench. 

Damascus Legion, No. 11, Select Knights A. 
0. U. W., organized August 19, 1882. 

Select Commander, J. B. R. Lespinasse ; 
Vice Commander, George H. Talmadge ; Lieu- 
tenant Commander. Wendal Hix ; Select Re- 
corder, J. W. Sucher ; Treasurer and Record- 
ing Treasurer, J. C. Merrick ; Standard Bearer, 
George H. Trench ; Marshal, J. H. Papenhau- 
sen; S. W., G. H. Steinhoff; J. W„ John A. 
Debus ; Chaplain, Philip Bayer , Guard, Rich- 
ard Warde. 



202 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



BUSINESS 



AND PROFESSIONAL MEN 
DALE, ILL. 



OF HINS- 



Attorneys at Law, D. J. Crocker, R. A. 
Childs, William D. Gates, J. Tiffany. 

Real Estate Dealers, William Robbius, 0. J. 
Stough, D. L. Perry, A. Walkel, D. Roth. 

Postmaster, Justice of the Peace, Notary 
Public and Insurance, A. L. Pearsall. 

Police Magistrate, Real Estate and Insur- 
ance, A. Dorathy. 

Physicians, J. C. Merrick, T. T. Howard, 
Joseph Williamson, F. H. Van Liew. 

General Store, Fox Brothers. 

Grocery and Provisions, F. Bradley. 

Drugs, William Evernden. 

Hardware and Agricultural Implements, John 
Bohlander. 

Meat Market, John A. Gifford & Co., Will- 
iam Hix. 

News Agent and Bakery, Thomas Foster. 

Barber and Bakery, Philip Bayer. 

Cool Dealer, P. S. Townsend. 

Lumber and Real Estate, J. Hulaniski. 

Carpenters and Builders, William Johnston, 
S. F. Mills, A. W. Bostwick, carpenter and re- 
pairer. 

Tailor, J. II. Papenhausen. 

Shoemaker, W. Lislie. 

Blacksmiths, George Trench and — Lewis. 

Hotel and Lively, Philander Torode. 

Mason and Builder, Jacob Walliser. 

Painters, A. H. Townsend, William H. At- 
kinson, Thomas Wadsworth, A. Anthony. 

President and Board of Village Trustees, 
D. L. Perry, George H. Talmadge, J. Hulan- 
iski, George W. Hinckley, J. C. Hess, J. C. 
Merrick. 

A. L. Pearsall, Treasurer. 

George Bowles, Clerk. 

Portrait and Landscape Painter, A. Payne. 

Pastor Congregational Church, Rev. John 
Ellis. 

One of the Directors Illinois Home Mission, 
Rev. Flavel Bascom. 



Rev. T. T. Howard. 
Principal of School, T. C. Cole. 
Station Agent, E. A. Lyon. 
The elevation of the railroad track above 
Lake Michigan is 158 feet. 

DOWNER'S GROVE VILLAGE. 

When the grove after which this village was 
named looked, from a distance, like an island, 
and the prairie around it like the ocean sur- 
rounding it, on one summer's day in 1838, six 
yoke of oxen, hitched to the trunk of a large 
tree, patiently toiled along what is now Maple 
Avenue in Downer's Grove. Backward and 
forward, for two miles or more, they dragged 
their ponderous burden, till the prairie turf was 
ground into a well-beaten path, and on this 
path grew the village to its present dimensions. 
If it had not been made here, the village would 
have centered farther to the south, where the 
original trail first went that led from Chicago 
to Naperville, and it was to divert the travel 
from its old channel and turn it where it now 
is that the surface was thus marked, connect- 
ing each way with the first trail. This was 
done by Israel P. Blodgett and Samuel Curtis, 
who held claims within the present corporate 
limits of this village. Soon after doing it, they 
planted on each side of this marked trail those 
sugar maple trees that have now attained such 
large proportions, and outrival in arborial 
grace an}* wayside trees, far or near, in North- 
ern Illinois. They will perpetuate the memory 
of those who planted them for centuries to 
come, as lithe feminine forms beside mascu- 
line ones, slowly pace along beneath their foli- 
age in the twilight hour, when young minds 
take sentimental turns. 

This is the history of the trees and their 
uses. Now let us relate the history of the other 
conditions of the town, less ornamental, but 
quite as essential to its success. 

In the autumn of 1 832, by the means of the 
Sauk war, a knowledge of the country west of 



DOWNERS GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



Chicago had come to the county of Jefferson, 
in the State of New York, and with a deter- 
mination to cast his lot here, Pierce Downer, a 
resident of that place, came to this spot to 
select a location, and being attracted by the 
beautiful grove, then the favorite abiding place 
of Wawbunsie — the Pottawatomie Chief, but 
now named after himself, he made a claim on 
what is now Section 6, Township 38, Range 11. 
He was a man of a sound body, an energetic 
mind, bred in the ironclad integrity of his age, 
tenacious of his rights and able to defend them, 
as was soon abundantly verified. 

His claim was on the north side of the grove, 
and here he lived alone in the edge of the 
island-like spot, till his family came the next 
}' ear — 1833. The same year, also, came his 
son Stephen, Mr. Joel Wells and Mr. Cooley. 
Stephen then made a claim on the east side of 
the grove, and Mr. Wells and Mr. Cooley made 
claims the southeast of the grove — all these 
claimants selecting suitable proportions of tim- 
ber and prairie. 

Meantime, Messrs. Wells and Cooley coveted 
a portion of Mr. Downer's claim, and in an evil 
hour commenced erecting a cabin on it. This 
resulted in a collision, the details of which, as 
told by Mr. Downer himself to Walter Blauch- 
ard in 1857, and printed in Richmond & Val- 
lette's History of Du Page County, are here 
quoted : 

" ' I went to Chicago one day to bu}' some 
provisions, and on returning, thought I saw 
some one working near the northeast corner of 
the grove. I went home and deposited my 
cargo (a back load), and although very tired, 
went out to reconnoitre my premises. To my 
great surprise I found that Wells and Cooley 
had commenced erecting a cabin on my claim. 
I went to a thicket close by and cut a hickory 
gad, but found I had no power to use it, for I 
was so mad that it took my strength all away. 
So I sat down and tried to cool off a little, but 
my excitement only cooled from a sort of vio- 



lent passion to deep and downright indignation. 
To think that my claim should be invaded, and 
that, too, by the only two white men besides 
myself then at the grove, made the vessel of 
my wrath to simmer like a pent sea over a 
burning volcano. I could sit still no longer. 
So I got up and advanced toward them, and 
the nearer I approached, the higher rose the 
temperature of my anger, which, by the time I 
got to them, was flush up to the boiling point. 
I said nothing, but pitched into them, shelalah 
in hand, and for about five minutes did pretty 
good execution. But becoming exhausted and 
being no longer able to keep them at bay, they 
grappled with me, threw me on the ground, and 
after holding me down a short time, they 
seemed to come to the conclusion that ' discre- 
tion was the better part of valor ' and let me 
up, when they ran one way and I the other, no 
doubt leaving blood enough upon the field of 
action to induce a stray prairie wolf to stop 
and take a passing snuff as he went that way. 
But, sir, they didn't come again to jump my 
claim." 

As might be supposed, Mr. Wells was now in 
a suitable frame of mind to sell out, and, as good 
fortune would have it, Mr. Israel P. Blodgett, 
the same who had settled in the Scott settle- 
ment alluded to in foregoing pages, was ready 
to buy him out, which he did in 1835, and 
moved to the place with his family, who may 
be enumerated as follows : H. W., now Judge 
of the Court at Chicago ; Israel P., Jr., now liv- 
ing at Downer's Grove ; Daniel, not living ; 
Asiel, now living at Waukegan ; Edward A., 
now living in Chicago ; Wells H, now living 
at St. Louis. 

The year before this — 1834 — Geary Smith 
came to the place, made a claim, and also bought 
out Stephen Downer. The ground on which 
the railroad depot now stands is on this pur- 
chase. 

On the 14th of August, 1836, Samuel Curtis 
bought a part of Mr. Blodgett's claim, for which 



204 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



he paid $1,000 cash down, and on it now stands 
the center of Downer's Grove. He died Feb- 
ruary 25, 1867, aged seventy-seven years, and 
was buried in the cemetery at the place. He 
is kindly remembered by the many friends he 
made during his useful life. Two of his sons — 
Charles and Roswell 0. — still live in the village. 

David Page came to the place in 1837 ; 
bought a farm at the south edge of the present 
corporate limits of the town, where he remained 
till he died a few years ago. 

The same year, Walter Blanchard, from Or- 
leans County, N. Y., in connection with Hemy 
Carpenter, from Washington County, N. Y., 
bought a farm, part of which is now within the 
the incorporate limits of Downer's Grove. 

Mr. Blanchard's land extended southwardly 
from the present town, and through the more 
elevated portions of it. The old trail went 
leading from Chicago to Naperville ; thence to 
Dixon and Galena by one branch, and by another 
to Ottawa. 

The track made by dragging the log, as al- 
ready stated, shortened this curve that went 
along the portion of Mr. Blanchard's place in- 
tended for his future residence, which had been 
made by the early travelers to find better eleva- 
tions. Like manj* other young men who came 
West, Mr. Blanchard was without a wife. Here 
was a beautiful location, where he had secured 
a home that any of his female friends left be- 
hind might feel happy and fortunate to enjoy 
with him. He did not share the feelings of the 
young man out here, whose name need not be 
mentioned, who, looking upon the matter in a 
business way, said, " I ain't going to pay no 
freight on a woman, no how, when there's 
enough here !" But, under the influence of 
first impressions, returned East, and promptly 
came back with his new bride ; but, what was 
his [surprise to find the locality of the road 
changed so that his first plans had to be modi- 
fied to suit the conditions. Mr. Blanchard has 
ever since been one of the representative men 



of the place, and nobly died in defense of the 
country at the battle of Ringgold Gap, in 1863. 
His remains were brought home and interred 
in the cemetery at the place. 

Henry Carpenter, who bought land with him, 
did not come to the place to live till 1840. Five 
years later, he opened a store, the first one es- 
tablished in the place. Eli W. Curtis was then 
Postmaster, and, at his request, Mr. Carpenter 
took the duties of the office as Secretary. 

Mr. Carpenter's trade came from the sur- 
rounding country, and in that day he was 
obliged to sell largely on credit.. Any one who 
came into his store with his shoes tied up, could 
get trusted, and but few of them betrayed his 
confidence. 

In 1855, Mr. Carpenter sold a half-interest 
in his store to Leonard K. Hatch, and the next 
year sold out entirely. 

A town hall was built by the corporation for 
holding town meetings, elections, etc., in 1877. 
It also had cells for confining vagrants, etc. 
Robert Dixon measured out justice to who all 
came before him for that purpose, and was the 
first judicial magistrate at the place. 

At a drunken row, while raising a building 
on Salt Creek, a man was badly hurt, and Mr. 
Dixon fined the 'offender $15. After this he 
always refused to taste liquor lest it might set 
a bad example, although the best of people 
then drank moderately, for there was no one to 
say Why do ye so ? Not every public officer 
is as consistent now-a-days. 

J. W. La Salle built a store with a commo- 
dious public hall over it in 1879. 

A company came here in 1872, and bought 
600 acres of land, most of which was in the 
grove which is now being laid off in streets, 
with artistic curves, rustic parks and lawns, 
for elegant residences. Gen. Ducat is the prin- 
cipal proprietor. 

After the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 
Railroad Company was located, and while it 
was being built, there was some uncertainty as 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



205 



to where the depot should be located in the 
town. To settle this matter, a meeting was 
called, to which Walter Blanchard, Henry Car- 
penter, Samuel Curtis, R. O. Curtis, S. P. Blod- 
gett, N. K. Whitney and a few others attended. 

Five hundred dollars were made up to pur- 
chase grounds for the depot where it now 
stands. The owner of the land, John P. Coates, 
being unfriendly to the road, would not sell 
it short of this sum, which was a round price, 
and, inasmuch as the lands a mile to the west, 
owned by Mr. Dryer, were offered free for the 
depot, it would have been built there had not 
the gentlemen mentioned above bought the 
lands of Mr. Coates and presented them to the 
company. 

The plat of Downer's Grove bears date of 
September 26, 1864, recorded by Norman Gil- 
bert, and situate on part of Section 8, Town 38, 
Range 11. At the railroad track it is 150 feet 
above Lake Michigan. 

THE BAPTIST CHURCH. 

On August 5, 1851, a little band of Baptists 
assembled in a schoolhouse, about one mile 
from the present location of their meeting- 
house, for the purpose of consulting together 
as to the propriety of organizing a Baptist 
Church. After mature deliberation, the seven- 
teen present unanimously resolved to proceed 
to organize, and adopted articles of faith and 
covenant, and at said meeting extended a 
unanimous call to the Rev. G. F. Holt to be- 
come their pastor, which he accepted. At the 
same meeting, Edward Goodenough and Lewis 
Pound were chosen Deacons. A council of 
delegates from several sister churches was 
called to meet with them on the 10th of Sep- 
tember, which council assembled and unani- 
mously voted to recognize the church as a 
Scripturally organized church of Christ, the 
following-named individuals being its constit- 
uent members : Edward Goodenough, Lura A. 
Goodenough, Henry Cruthers, Harmon Good- 



enough, William C. Perry, Lewis Pound, Mary 
C. Pound. Philip Sucher, Emily Sucher, Caro- 
line Gleason, Josephine Gleason, Am. E. Good- 
enough, G. Smith, Antoinette Trumbull, Nor- 
man Gilbert, Emily Gilbert and Sarah M. Smith. 
This little band of pioneers all had a mind to 
work, and with the help of a few accessions to 
their number and the indefatigable labor of 
their pastor for help from those outside, suc- 
ceeded during the first years in building 

and paying for a house of worship, at a cost of 
about $1,200 ; at which time the only settle- 
ments near, besides the farm community, were 
a small store, kept by Messrs. Carpenter & 
Hatch, and a blacksmith, Philip Sucher. 

In 1871, their meeting-house was destroyed 
by fire, without insurance. At that time, the 
church numbered about ninety, less than one- 
fourth being males. They were not discour- 
aged. A meeting was soon called of the church 
and society, a building committee appointed, 
with instructions to procure plans and build a 
new house, which was completed and dedicated, 
free from debt, about one year thereafter, at a 
cost of about $5,000, in addition to which, 
something over $600 was raised to pay for 
organ, carpet and other furniture for the same. 

During the first eight years of the history of 
the church, preaching was only maintained on 
alternate Sundays. Since that time, the church 
has maintained preaching every Sabbath, with 
fair congregations, though three other churches 
have meeting-houses. One or two other soci- 
eties have occasional meetings. The present 
membership is 108 ; a Sunday school with an 
average attendance of 105, there being 168 
names on the Secretary's book. — N. K. Whit- 
ney, Present Church Clerk. 

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 

The Congregational Church of Downers 
Grove was organized September 14, 1866. 
Meetings, at first, were held in a hall rented for 
the purpose. In the year 1874, a meeting- 



206 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



house was built. The audience-room is pleas- 
ant. A good congregation meets on the Sab- 
bath, and an interesting Sunday school is held. 
The pastors of the church have been T. P. 
Chafer. Joel Grant, A. L. Loomis, G. T. Hol- 
comb and S. F. Stratton, who is in the fifth year 
of his pastorate. 

st. Paul's church. 

This church belongs to the Evangelical 
Association. In 1860, Martin Escher, Sr., 
Jacob Rehm, Solomon Mertz, Phillipp Leh- 
man, Michael Hofat and others, purchased, for 
the use of this church, the one which the 
Congregationalists had built some years pre- 
viously. In 1S64, this building was moved to 
a more central location, the better to accom- 
modate the members of the church, which then 
had increased to fifty in number. 

The church continued to prosper, and, in 
1873, had increased in numbers to seventy, 
many of whom lived in the village of Downer's 
Grove. It was, therefore, thought best to again 
move the church, to place it in a more central 
location, and to this end an acre of land was 
purchased of Thomas Hustin, in the south- 
western part of the village, to which place the 
church was removed. A flourishing Sabbath 
school, numbering 100 members, is connected 
with the church, of which William J. Boidel- 
man is Superintendent. Rev. Samuel Deikover 
was the first and Rev. Peth the present pastor. 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCHES. 

The Downers Grove Methodist Episcopal 
Church was organized by Father Beggs in 
about 1836. The first church was built in 
1852. Lewis Wood, Nathan A. Belden, John 
Howard, F. M. Roe and John Cotes were the 
Trustees. Rev. — Stover was the first pastor. 

In 1864—65, Rev. Richard Wake was pastor. 
Rev. Samuel Ambrose, Rev. J. R. Allen, Rev. 
A. W. Patton and Rev. R. D. Russell suc- 
ceeded till 1868. 

Rev. Samuel Hewes was pastor in 1876, and 



left, in 1878. Rev. John 0. Foster was pastor 
in 1878-79. In 1880, Rev. T. C. Warrington 
and Rev. C. W. Cordes were pastors. In 1881, 
Rev. A. H. Kistler, with Rev. T. C. Cordes, 
were pastors. 

The church now occupied was rebuilt in 
1879, at an expense of $15,000, besides the 
ground, which had been originally donated by 
Henry Carpenter. 

The membership is now thirty-five, and the 
Sunday school about eighty. The church is 
out of debt, both for church and parsonage. 

The Cass Methodist Episcopal Church was 
organized as early as 1836, probably by Father 
Beggs, who would be more likely to pioneer 
it than any one known to the writer. Services 
were first held in a log schoolhouse. Elisha 
Smart, Old Father Cobb and Mrs. John Old- 
field were among the first members. The pres- 
ent church was built in 1869. Rev. A. W. Pat- 
ton and Rev. J. R. Allen were the ones who 
obtained the subscription to build it. Mr. 
William Smart donated the ground. The 
church is valued at $2,500, all paid for. It 
has the same pastors as the Downer's Grove 
Church, for which reason its history has suc- 
ceeded it, though the church is located in the 
southern part of the town. The Sunday school 
has ninety scholars, and the church numbers 
seventy-five members. 

THE DOWNER'S OROVE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

The first schools here were maintained by 
subscriptions or by pro rata assessments ; but 
now schools are supported by a public school 
fund and taxes paid by freeholders. Early 
schools were kept mostly in private houses, 
where accommodations were rude and limited. 
Now comfortable and commodious buildings, 
erected for the purpose, give shelter to our 
public schools. 

As early as the winter of 1836 to 1837, in a 
" lean-to" built to the house of Mr. I. P. Blod- 
gett, Sr., the village schools had their birth- 




83 YEARS OLD. 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



209 



Mr. Hiram Stillsou, a student from Oberlin, 
here instructed the children of Mr. Blodgett 
and a few others, who were glad to avail them- 
selves of the opportunities here afforded. 

About the year 1837-38, what may be re- 
garded as the first district school was opened 
in a house built by Mr. John Wallace, on the 
spot where Mr. Meadowcroft's house now 
stands, and of which the old schoolhouse now 
constitutes a part. Here George Carpenter 
taught one term. 

Subsequently, school was kept under the roof 
of Mr. Samuel Curtiss, Sr.. taught by Norman 
G. Hurd, followed by E. W. Curtiss. 

Later, Mr. L. K. Hatch taught a school in 
what was then known as the " Norwegian 
House," or the " old shoe shop," which stood 
some distance west of the Blauchard place. 

In 1838, a schoolhouse was built on the 
•• west side," near the present home of L. W. 
Stanley. Here Mr. Sherman taught the first 
school, which was made up of children who 
came from far and near. Mr. Slawson, E. W. 
Curtiss, L. K. Hatch and Amos Adams (now 
Judge of Circuit Court in California) served in 
the capacity of teacher. 

In 1846, a redivision of districts took place, 
whereupon a site was purchased and a school- 
house built near the present residence of Mr. 
F. M. Woods, by Directors James Depue, W. 
B. Pratt and John Shepard. O. P. Hathaway 
was employed to teach the first school, and was 
succeeded by Messrs. H. L. Litchfield. J. M. 
Valette, Dayton and M. B. Gregory. Here 
taught, also. Miss Mary Blodgett, who has died 
long since, and Miss Annis Gilbert, now Mrs. 
Paige. Our fellow-townsman, Capt. T. S. Rog- 
ers, here " wielded the birch," " chalked the 
line" and reigned a '-monarch of all he sur- 
veyed " from behind the teacher's desk. Here 
J. W. Rogers instructed the youth, who came 
in such numbers "to sit at the feet of this 
Gamaliel," that, unless some class was contin- 
ually on the " recitation floor," all could not 



find seats. Others, whose names have escaped 
the vigilance of memory, here made the best 
of the advantages afforded in instructing the 
youth placed under their care. 

In 1867, it seems the schoolhouse of 1846 
had " served its day and generation," and what 
is now the " north wing " of the present brick 
building was erected by Directors John Thatch- 
er, John Stanley and Gardiner Paige. This 
building contained two rooms, and was dedi- 
cated to the cause of education by the Misses 
Cochrane, who taught the first schools in the 
new building. 

It rapidly increased in numbers, and, in 1873, 
the brick building was full to overflowing, and 
a room was rented on Main street to accommo- 
date a third department. 

Owing to the rapid increase in the population 
of our village, and consequent growth of the 
school, Directors Curtiss, Blodgett and Farrar, 
found it necessary, in 1877, to erect the main 
part of the present building, thus furnishing 
four commodious rooms, all of which are at 
present full to their utmost capacity : and, judg- 
ing from the unprecedented increase in the 
school population as recently reported to us by 
the Clerk of the School Board, it cannot be long 
ere the sound of the builder's hammer must 
again be heard on the school premises, and an 
increased teaching force will be a necessity. 

In 1876, the school was thoroughly graded — 
a ten years' course of instruction adopted — 
embracing two years of high school work. 
Three classes have thus far graduated from this 
school ; in 1879, a class of five members ; in 
1881, a class of seven, and, in 1882, a class 
of six. 

The school, at present under the directorship 
of Messrs. Woods, Blodgett and Curtiss, is in a 
prosperous condition. At no time during the 
seven years' work of its Principal has the out- 
look been more encouraging. Miss Georgia 
Fitch, in the primary ; Miss Elizabeth F. Marsh. 
in the intermediate, and Miss Maria L. Clark, 



010 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



in the grammar department, are the assistant 
teachers, all of whom are accomplishing credit- 
able results. — John K. Rassweiler, Principal 

ABOLITIONISM. 

Abolitionism in this county had its exponents 
in Downer's Grove perhaps to a greater extent 
than in any other part of the county when 
such a political doctrine was stained with dis- 
grace in popular estimation. Its active spirits 
were Israel P. Blodgett, David Page, Robert 
Dixon, Henry Carpenter and Rockwell Guild. 
Walter Blanchard was a Whig Abolitionist, 
'• not that he loved Caesar less, but Rome 
more." He took hold of the work as soon as 
he saw progress. 

Mr. Blodgett had charge of the station on 
the underground railroad. The trains generally 
ran in the night. Aurora was the first station 
west, and Chicago on the east, the depot at the 
latter place being at the house of Philo Car- 
penter. 

From Aurora to Downer's Grove was one 
night's run, thence to Chicago another night's 
run. When passengers arrived on these trains, 
their names were not published on register 
lists ; on the contrary, the passengers were 
often concealed in buffalo hides as they were 
taken from the vehicles in which they rode, 
and carried into a larder room like a quarter of 
beef. This was the way the disciples of Free 
Soil, in their aggressive proselytism, managed 
to inaugurate a system which ultimately over- 
turned the mightiest and haughtiest patri- 
archal institution that ever grew into existence 
on American soil, and it is worthy of mention 
that Du Page County was one of the pioneers 
in this sweeping change in the public policy of 
our nation. 

PROFESSIONAL AND BUSINESS MEN. 

Pastor Baptist Church, Rev. Mr. Van Osdell ; 
Pastor Methodist Episcopal Church, Rev. Mr. 
Cord ice. 



Real Estate Agents, Street & Pardee, East 
Grove. 

Western Agent New York Lace House, John 
Radcliffe. 

Jeweler and Watchmaker, V. Siraonson. 

Draper and Tailor. N. W. Peterson. 

Blacksmiths and Horseshoers, J. W. Sucher, 
shop, corner Main street and Maple avenue ; 
Peter Wertz. 

Tinware, Reapers, Mowers, Old Iron and 
Rags, John Debolt. 

Broom Factory, I. P. Blodgett. 

Boot and Shoe-makers, and all kinds of fine 
repairing, George Diener : Charles Hodgman. 

Ice Cream, Confectionery and Bakery, John 
Welter. 

Wagon-maker, Livery and Sale Stable, C. 
Smith. 

Practical Wagon-maker, William Mergen- 
thal. 

Barber, E. E. West. 

Harness-maker and Fancy Carriage and Sign 
Painting, M. F. Saylor. 

Harness-maker, George Downer. 

Station Agent, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, 
F. G. Brown. 

Switchman, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, 
D. 0. Cole. 

Engineer, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, C. 
W. Frisbie. 

Fireman, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, 
Wesley Frisbie. 

Pastor Congregational Church, S. F. Strat- 
ton. 

Attorney at Law, A. B. Wilson. 

Police Magistrate, Gardner Paige. 

Postmaster, J. M. Barr. 

Dealers in Lumber, Coal, Hardware, Agricul- 
tural Implements, Salt, Stucco, Lime, Cement 
and all kinds of Builders' Materials, J. W. 
Rogers & Co. ; Mochel & Co. 

Carpenters and Joiners, B. B. Morgan ; F. 
Schindler. 

Druggist, C. J. Meadowcroft. 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



211 



Cheese Factory, < i list and Planing-Mill, Mil- 
ler & Blanchard. Average amount of milk re- 
ceived per da}-, 3,0(10 pounds ; average amount 
of butter made per day, seventy-five pounds ; 
average amount of cheese made per da} 7 , 225 
pounds. 

Bricklayer, and all kinds of mason work. W. 
J. Beidleman. 

Painting, Papering, Whitewashing and Cal- 
cimining, C. N. Saylor. 

Beardsley House, Proprietor, E. S. Beardsley. 

All kinds of Millinery work. Mrs. R. C. 
Bates. 

Milliner and Fashionable Dressmaker, Mrs. 

E. H. Andrews. 

Dealers in Dry Goods, Groceries, Ready- 
made Clothing, Etc., Thatcher & Crescy ; David 
Kline ; La Salle & Co. 

Physicians, J. R. Haggard, M. D., office over 
drug store ; E. H. Le Due, M. D., office at drug 
store. 

Dentist, Dr. J. F. Thompson, office in New 
Music Hall, Chicago, 111. 

Agent lor Linden Heights Land Association, 

F. M. Woods, office at post office. 

The principal streets of Downer's Grove have 
been graveled eight inches deep in 1882. The 
gravel has been brought to the place by the 
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Com- 
pany from their gravel pits at Montgomery, 
Kane County, the gravel being laid down at 
the place at a very low rate for the benefit of 
the town. It is designed to gravel Maple avenue 
next year. 

CLARENDON HILLS. 

Clarendon Hills, situate just west of Hins- 
dale, was platted October 29, 1873. James M. 
Walker, Amos T. Hall, Robert Harris and Henry 
C. Middaugh, were the original proprietors. A 
new depot has been built at the place. 

The streets are laid out in curves adapted to 
the graduating rises of ground on which the 
whole town is located, some parts of which are 
the highest points of land on the Chicago, Bur- 



lington & Quincy Railroad between Chicago 
and the Fox River. The divide on the railroad 
track is two miles west of this place. 

The elevation of the track at the depot at 
Clarendon Hills is 158 feet above Lake Michi- 
gan, from which place the land rises on both 
sides, but more rapidly on the north side, where 
it justifies its name of Clarendon Hills in mul- 
tifarious ovals and convexities, intermingled 
together in Nature's ease. 

FULLERsnrmi. 

This village lies within the old Indian boun- 
dary lines, and, consequently, the land on which 
it stands was sold in 1 835. 

It was purchased by Robert Jones, of New 
York City. The next year (1836), Grin and 
David Giant, two brothers, came to the place, 
who were its first settlers. They opened a tav- 
ern, and established a post office named Brush 
Hill, and, for many years, it was a well known 
landmark, to which roads, trails and trade 
tended throughout the country. Sherman King 
succeeded him in tavern keeping, who was suc- 
ceeded by Mr. Atkinson in this business, then 
so profitable, when the ox-team dragged its 
ponderous burden over the muddy loads. John 
S. Coe came to the place in 1839. Jacob W. 
Fuller then lived two miles to the north. His 
son, Benjamin, platted the place January 20, 
1851, when its name was changed to Fullers- 
burg. It is a most delightful retreat, among 
the tree-clad hills just north of Hinsdale, from 
which place sidewalks extend to its central 
streets. 

The following is a list of its business and 
professional men : Rev. F. Boeber, Lutheran 
Church; A. Ford, merchant ; S. Heineman, mer- 
chant and Postmaster ; C. Eidam, blacksmith ; 

C. T. Coe, blacksmith ; F. Tunk, wagon-maker : 
I. Haff, wagon-maker ; C. Karnatz, shoemaker ; 

D. Moeder, shoemaker ; I. Rucht} - , ice-dealer ; 
I. Miller, hotel ; P. Bohlander, hotel ; F. Graue, 
miller ; W. Ostrum, plasterer and mason ; A. 



212 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Froscher, carpenter and builder ; W. Wagner, 
carpenter and builder; Win. Delicate, painter ; 
L. Kurth, painter; Win. Ostrum, stone-mason. 
Its Church. — In the lovely little village of 
Fullersburg, Du Page County, there is a Ger- 
man congregation, called the " German United 
Evangelical Church of St. John," founded in 
1878 by their present pastor, and numbering 



already fifty families. The congregation owns 
five acres of land, whereon the unpretending 
meeting-house is standing, and wherein the 
dead of the church find their last resting place. 
There is also a day school as well as a Sunday 
school connected with the German Church, and 
attended by from fifty to sixty children. — Fr. 
Boeber, Pastor. 



CHAPTER X. 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP— LIST OF EARLY SETTLERS— VILLAGE OF NAPEI1V1LLE— CHURCHES— 
SCHOOLS — MANUFACTORIES — THE NORTHWESTERN COLLEGE — TEMPERANCE 
MOVEMENTS — NEWSPAPERS — FIRE DEPARTMENT— MILITARY COM- 
PANY— NURSERIES— THE LODGES— BANK— STONE QUARRY. 



THE history of the Naper settlement com- 
prised the cream of the pioneer history 
of the county. It has been told in early 
chapters in sufficient detail to leave little to 
be said here; yet a list of the names of early 
settlers of this township may be a conven- 
ience to the reader, and the following is given : 
Joseph Naper, John Naper, John Murray, 
Christopher Paine, R. N. Murray, Ira Car- 
penter, John Stevens, Michael Hines, A. H. 
Howard, John Warne, Daniel Warren, 
Leister Peet, George Laird, Harry Fowler, 
Hiram Fowler, E. B. Bill, Nathan Allen, 
Louis Ellsworth, S. M. Skinner, A. S. Jones, 
S. Sabin, George Martin, L. C. Aldrich, H. 
L. Peasley, R. Hyde, George Stroubler, G. 
Bishop, T. H. Stevenson, W. Rose, R. Wright, 
E. G. Wight, J. F. Wight, W. Weaver, J. 
Granger, N. Crampton, W. J. Strong, R. 
Whipple, U. Stanley, T. Thatcher, A. T. 
Thatcher, J. Lamb, R. Hill, David Babbitt, 
H. C. Babbitt, J. S. Kimball, J. B. Kimball, 
L. Kimball, R. K. Potter, J. J. Kimball, 
Adial S. Jones, Peter Dodd, Benjamin Smith. 
The Scotts and H. Boardman were settlers 
of Will County, just over the line, but were 



associated with all the interests of the Naper 
settlement Their history is inseparable 
from that of both Will and Du Page Coiin- 
ties, as has already been made apparent to 
the reader. It may also be said that the his- 
tory of Naperville Village further elucidates 
the early history of the county. 

The township has 1,289 children between 
the ages of six and twenty-one, ten school 
districts, with a schoolhouse in each, and one 
graded school. 

Outside of Naperville Village are three 
churches, as follows: 

GERMAN BAPTIST CHURCH. 

The German Baptist denomination of 
Christians (commonly known by the name of 
Dunkards) organized as a society in 1855, 
and built a meeting-house in 1860, about 
half way between Naperville and Warren- 
ville, in Naperville Township. It was built 
by subscription among themselves. Their 
ministers, Deacons and Elders are elected by 
the members of their society, and none of 
them have any salary. They take care that 
none of their people shall become paupers, 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



213 



or want for the comforts of life, by visiting 
every family among their order and supplying 
them with all that is necessary, if misfortune 
befalls them. They now number between 
fifty and sixty members. Its present officers 
are C. F. Martin, Elder; Jacob Sollenberger, 
Simon Yundt and Hiram Smith, ministers; 
Dorence Vroman, Noah Early, Michael Sol- 
lenberger and John Netzley, Deacons. 

It is against their principles to go to law 
or go to war, or to swear by oath; but they 
affirm when called to give evidence before a 
court of justice. 

Their origin was in Germantown, Penn. 

Christopher Sauer, who brought the first 
printing press to America, was one of the 
founders of this society. 

The name Dunkard is improperly applied 
to them. Their real name is indicated at 
the head of this sketch. 

ST. JOHN'8 LUTHERAN CHURCH. 

The following history of the Evangelical 
Lutheran St. John's Church of Naperville, 
Du Page Co., 111., from its origin in 1853 to 
the present date, is by H. Horstman : 

The above-named church owes its origin to 
about ten or a dozen German citizens of the 
towns of Naperville and Lisle, in Du Page 
County, who desired to make the attempt to 
lay the foundations for a congregation of 
their own creed, at the same time using ex- 
clusively the German language as a medium 
of communication in divine service, for the 
benefit of those new-comers from the Father- 
land who might happen to'arrive in this vi- 
cinity. 

At that time, in the summer of 1853, the 
Rev. Fr. Ottmann, a member of the Lutheran 
Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States, 
lived between Naperville and Downer's Grove. 
He had been designated to preach the Gos- 
pel to a number of farmers residing in the 



vicinity of the latter place, and alternately 
held divine service in a schoolhouse near 
Downer's, and in a similar building situated 
in a more northerly direction, on the old plank 
road from Naperville to the Desplaines 
River. 

The above men from Naperville and Lisle 
went to hear Mr. Ottmann from time to 
time, and finally made arrangements with 
him to come to Naperville every third Sab- 
bath morning, to preach a sermon in the old 
court house, and at the same time to make an 
attempt to build up a congregation sufficient- 
ly numerous to sustain their own preacher. 
Mr. Ottmann fulfilled his engagement to the 
best of his ability, establishing for himself a 
well-earned reputation for sincerity and piety, 
but felt compelled, after a duration of fifteen 
months, to abandon his trust, being unable to 
agree with the members in some fundamental 
principles held sacred by the Synod of Mis- 
souri, but which they had been taught to re- 
gard in a more liberal light. In the winter 
of 1854-55, Mr. Ottmann received a vocation 
to Missouri, and left for that State, accom- 
panied by the best wishes of his friends in 
Du Page County. 

About the same time, information was re- 
ceived that, in the fall of 1855, the Rev. E. 
H. Buhre, formerly a member of the Lutheran 
General Council of the State of Now York, 
had arrived in Aurora, Kane County, from 
Williamsburg, N. Y., built up a congrega- 
tion in the former place, and, by the help of 
friends, had even succeeded in erecting a 
church building. The Naperville men, after 
having attended his divine service occasion- 
all}', finally induced Mr. Buhre to visit Na- 
perville every third Sabbath afternoon, and 
for this purpose the building of the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church of that place was kindly 
ceded. Mr. Buhre came to Naperville for 
several months, when the members of the con- 



214 



HISTORY OF Dl' PAGE COUNTY. 



gregation, which then had assumed a more 
tangible form, secured the services of a Mr. 
Lerfling, who moved to Napervillein the fall 
of 1850, but was again dismissed by the con- 
gregation in January, 1857, after which time 
Mr. Buhre kindly resumed his activity in Na- 
perville, having, during this time, joined the 
Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Northern Illi- 
nois, consisting then mostly of ministers of 
German and Scandinavian, but also of Anglo- 
Saxon, descent, under guidance of the Rev. 
Dr. Harvey, of Springfield. 

In April, 1857, a member of the Lutheran 
congregation at Naperville, who, in the mean- 
time, had in some way, though perhaps not 
formally organized, visited Germany, and 
there secured the services of Mr. Herm Lies- 
mann, a young man of many abilities, and ed- 
ucated by the missionary society at Barmen, 
Rhenish Prussia, to preach the Gospel to his 
countrymen in the United States. Mr. Lies- 
mann arrived in the fall of 1857, and, after 
having been ordained by the above-named 
Lutheran Synod of Northern Illinois, and de- 
clared their member, forthwith began to for- 
mally and legally organize the Lutheran con- 
gregation at Naperville. Mr. Liesmann at 
the same time held divine service about six 
miles southeast of Downer's Grove, and built 
and dedicated a church there in the summer 
of 1859 During Mr. Liesmann's stay in 
Naperville, which lasted two and a half 
years, the congregation there bought the old 
meeting-house of the Evangelical association 
of that place, situated on its preseut site on 
Van Buien avenue, for $000, and, for an equal 
amount, erected a parsonage. Mr. Liesmann 
left for Iowa in the summer of 1SG0, and in 
his place the congregation chose Mr. H. M. 
Guehl, also at that time a member of the 
Synod of Northern Illinois, but which, shortly 
afterward, he left, to be accepted as a mem- 
ber of the Lutheran Synod of Wisconsin. 



whose doctrines seemed more conformable to 
his views. 

The congregation soon followed his exam- 
ple, organized under a new constitution, and 
numbered about thirty members, several of 
whom, however, moved to other States in the 
course of time. In the fall of 1802, Mr. 
Guehl was called by his synod to Northern 
Wisconsin, and as his successor the congre- 
gation chose the above-named Rev. E. H. 
Buhre, who had long felt inclined to leave 
Aurora. Mr. Buhre also remained in Naper 
ville two years, the same time visiting, on the 
Sabbath afternoon, Downer's Grove, and then, 
owing to some difficulties, vacated the par- 
sonage and removed to a private residence, 
which, in the meantime, he had created. 
Mr. Buhre left in the fall of 1804, and from 
that time to September, 1805, no minister of 
the Lutheran denomination resided at their 
parsonage at Naperville. 

Occasionally during that time, divine serv- 
ice and communion were held by the Rev. E. 
Kenchen, a member of the then United Evan 
gelical Synod of the Northwest, comprised of 
representatives of both the Lutheran and 
Reformed Churches of Germany, as embod- 
ied in the Evangelical Churches of that State, 
though conforming to republican institution. 
The congregation of Naperville soon found 
the doctrines held by that synod more agree- 
able to their views than the ultra- Lutheran 
doctrines of the Synods of Missouri and Wis- 
consin, joined the former, and were, in July, 
1805, by them supplied with a pastor of their 
own, in the person of the Rev. William Bin- 
ner. The members, however, whose num- 
bers had become smaller, organized under a 
new constitution, which, with only one 
amendment, regarding membership, exists to 
this day. 

Mr. Binner, with his family, remained at 
Naperville a little over three years, and, 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



215 



though removed by the Lord some seven 
years ago, is still kindly remembered by his 
many friends. Mr. Binner left Naperville 
in October, 1868, and was succeeded by Mr. 
J. Kern, a young man of medium capacities, 
who. unaided by experience, ultimately failed 
in his task, and was in turn succeeded, after 
a year's time, by the Rev. T. Lotka, who, 
however, after a short stay of nine months, 
accepted a call for a Professorship at Fari- 
bault, Minn. The Rev. Fr. Lohappel fol- 
lowed in the fall of 1870, and under his guid- 
ance, in 1871, the church building was 
greatly enlarged, a steeple was built and a 
suitable bell procured; the interior also was 
newly and neatly furnished, the whole outlay 
being nearly $2,000. The funds for this 
purpose were raised partly by contribution of 
members, one-half of them, however, present- 
ed to the congregation by Mr. William Preis- 
werk, a wealthy gentleman of Switzerland, 
formerly a resident of the State of Illinois, 
who faithfully remembered his old friends. 

Mr. Schappel having, in March. 1874, re- 
signed his trust, was, in July of the same 
year, succeeded by the Rev. R. "Wobus, a 
young man of great ability and sterling char- 
acter, who, however, was called, two years 
afterward, to a theological Professorship near 
St. Louis, Mo., belonging to the Evangelical 
Synod of North America, which, at the pres- 
ent time, comprises in the United States all 
the representatives of their own creed. 

To this day the Evangelical Lutheran Con- 
gregation adheres to that synod, and their 
pulpit has been successively occupied by the 
Rev. A. Teutschel, from September, 1876, to 
the same time in 1877, by Rev. H. Huebsch- 
mann from April, 1878, to October, 1881; 
the present pastor, Rev. Q. Hageman, how- 
ever, residing at Amboy, Lee County, and al- 
ternately holding divine service at Naperville 
and at the former place. Owing to the re- 



moval of many members to Iowa, Kansas and 
other States, the number of them is not large, 
but the prospect of having the ranks again 
filled by emigration from the Fatherland is 
encouraging. 

EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION. 

The Evangelical Association at Copenha- 
gen, in the southwest part of Naperville 
Township. Six families of this faith came 
to Copenhagen and settled in 1844, from 
Pennsylvania, holding religious services in a 
schoolhouse till 1858, when a church was 
built by subscription. Rev. Lintner was 
their first pastor, who preached at the school - 
house; after whom they had other pastors 
biennially, according to their church govern- 
ment. From its first organization, the mem- 
bership has continued to increase, chiefly by 
immigration. It now numbers about forty 
members. The church is a neat edifice, and 
its grounds ornamented with trees. 

The society is in a prosperous condition, 
all of its members thrifty farmers, sons and 
daughters of the first founders of the church, 
who have inherited the religion of their fa- 
thers, as well as their correct habits in social 
life. 

VILLAGE OF NAPERVILLE. 

The first settlers of Boston were attracted 
there by an excellent spring of pure water 
that broke out of the ground from the base 
of one of the three hills that originally stood 
at this place, which the Indians called Shau- 
mut. 

Naperville had a like attraction as to the 
spring, which drew settlers here and made it 
the first nucleus of rising power in Northern 
Illinois west of Chicago and east of Dixon. 
Joseph Naper first surveyed and laid out the 
town in streets, and his plat of it bears date 
of February 14, 1842. It was situate on the 
southeast quarter of Section 13. Township 



216 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



38, Range 9 east, and henceforward the name 
of the place was Naperville, instead of the 
Naper settlement. The first frame building 
erected in it was done by A. H. Howard in 
the fall of 1833. It stood a few rods south 
of a house in which Mr. J. Horn lived in 
1876. 

Here was the center to which highways 
tended. Here were saw and grist mills, 
stores, and the material out of which to make 
a town, and here existed the necessities for a 
corporate government to regulate certain con- 
tingencies that are sure to come up amidst 
diverse interests in close proximity and pos- 
sible rivalry to each other, and a public meet- 
ing was called at the court house in 1856 to 
take the initiatory steps to bring about the 
desired end. By a vote at this meeting, Hi- 
ram Cody, R. N. Murray, H. F. Vallette and 
H. Loring were appointed to draft the form 
by which it was desired by the sense of this 
meeting to incorporate the town, and Lewis 
Ellsworth and Nathan Allen were commis- 
sioned to present this document to the Legis- 
lature to be acted on by that body. In ac- 
cordance with their request, an act was passed 
by the Legislature of Illinois, and approved 
by the Governor, Joel A. Matteson, February 
7, 1857, to incorporate the village of Naper- 
ville. Its officers were to consist of a Presi- 
dent and four Trustees, a Clerk, a Police 
Magistrate and a Police Constable. The 
President and Trustees to be chosen annually, 
and the other officers once in four years, and all 
by a vote of the people. 

The first election was held under the new 
corporation May 4, 1857, resulting in the 
election of the following officers: For Presi- 
dent, Joseph Naper ; Trustees, Hiram H. 
Cody, George Martin, Xavier Egerman, Mich- 
ael Hiens; for Clerk, C. M. Castle; Treasurer 
A. W. Colt; Police Magistrate, H. F. Val- 
lette; Police Constable, A. C. Graves. 



At this election, 174 votes were polled; at 
the election in 1860, 230 votes; in 1865, 199 
votes; in 1870, 253 votes; in 1874,389 votes. 
(Returns wanting in 1 875.) In 188 1 , 420 votes 
were polled. 

In March previous to this election, the 
most disastrous flood ever known on the Du 
Page River occurred. It carried away the 
dam above the town, and the accumulated 
waters it held back thus suddenly released 
rose into the streets of the low grounds and 
gave the inmates of the houses barely time 
to escape. The damage caused by the flood 
was over 115,000. M. Hines, J. T. Green, 
R. Willard, C. W. Keith and J. Naper were 
the principal losers. 

The original town lies in the southeast 
quarter of Section 13, in the town of Naper- 
ville, as it is now named, which civil division 
was given to the Government township de- 
scribed as Township 38, Range 9 east, but, 
by subsequent additions made to it, the vil- 
lage extends eastwardly into Range 10, Sec- 
tions 7 and 18, in Lisle Township. The 
elevation at the railroad track above Lake 
Michigan is 146 feet. 

The present public square of Naperville is 
the ground occupied by the old court house, 
about half of the grounds laid out in the town 
of Lisle, and was conveyed gratis to Naper- 
ville March 30, 1877. 

Much the largest portion of the village lies 
on the northeast bank of the Du Page River, 
which naturally inclines its surface toward 
the south and southwest, thereby giving veg- 
etation an early start in the spring. The 
ground graduates upward from the river on 
both sides into a great variety of oval eleva- 
tions. One of them, on which the house of 
Mr. Ellsworth stands, was the spot on which 
Fort Paine was built in 1832, it being con- 
siderably higher than any other rise of ground 
near by, but the broad plateau in the back- 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



217 



ground beyond the erosion and bank drainage 
of the river is still a little above any portion 
of the village of Naperville. The town is 
well supplied with springs of very pure wa- 
ter, which rises several feet above the sur- 
face, and is made to flow into tanks for con- 
venience to the citizens. 
■ The following description of the town, 
given by C. W*. Richmond and H. F. Val- 
letta, in their History of Du Page County, 
published in 1857, will show what it then 
was, only the next year after it had been in- 
corporated : 

" The mercantile business, aside from agri- 
culture, is the chief business of the town. 
The principal stores employ capitals of be- 
tween $6,0(10 and $8,000 annually. They 
sell large amounts of goods, not only to the in- 
habitants of this, but to those of surrounding 
towns. Integrity is the marked characteristic 
of the dealings of the merchants of Naper- 
ville. This, in connection with the uniformly 
low prices at which they sell their goods, has 
secured to them a liberal and extended pat- 
ronage. 

" There are two large nurseries near the vil- 
lage, from which trees and shrubs are sent to 
all parts of the Northwest. We have been 
furnished some account of the business of 
these nurseries, which we give below: The 
Du Page Eclectic Nurseries were established 
in 1853, by R. W. and R. B. Hunt. During 
the four years past, these nurseries have prop- 
agated, in each year, from fifty to one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand fruit trees. Orna- 
mental trees and shrubbery have been propor- 
tionately increased, and some thousands of 
foreign trees and shrubs have been added by 
importation, as the business has justified. 
The Du Page County Nurseries of Lewis 
Ellsworth & Co. were established in 1849. 
These nurseries cover at present some fifty 
acres of ground, embracing in their collec- 



tion the most extensive stock and assortment 
of varieties of fruit and ornamental trees, 
shrubs and plants, to be found in the North- 
west. The yearly increase of trees and shrubs 
by propagation is truly astonishing. The 
proprietors have imported, during the present 
season (1857), from Europe, more than thirty 
thousand young evergreens and other plants. 
Attached to the establishment is a plant- 
house, arranged for propagating plants dur- 
ing the winter season. The establishment 
gives employment to a large number of work- 
men, some ten or twelve families deriving 
their entire support from it. Some fifteen 
| or twenty men are employed, at an expense 
! of over $6,000 per annum." 

The foregoing account of a business so es- 
sential to the comfort and beauty of newly 
made prairie homes serves to show from 
whence came the horticultural development 
of the country around, or at least how a 
branch of industry took its start that has mul- 
tiplied trees and other plants till every 
hamlet and every farm is supplied with 
them. 

Subsequently, C. W. Richmond established 
a nursery here, and continued the business 
for some years, thereby lending a hand to the 
arduous and useful work of supplying the 
country with trees. 

Ernst Van Oren also established a nursery 
about the same time as Mr. Richmond, and 
still continues the business. 

The Du Page County Nursery, the first one 
established here, is still supplying orders for 
trees and other plants, but is not increasing 
its stock, or propagating, Mr. Ellsworth, the 
proprietor, wishing to relieve himself of its 
active work and responsibilities. 

The present nursery stock here is not as 
large as it formerly was, but the growing of 
trees is constantly on the increase in the 
country. 



218 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Of other manufacturing establishments in 
Naperville, at the same time, says Richmond 
and Vallette, in their history: 

•' The plow and wagon shops of Messrs. 
Vaughan & Peck. It was originally estab- 
lished by A. S. Jones, who is entitled to the 
credit of originating the steel plow now so 
much in use. The manufactory of this plow 
commenced in 1840. They possess many supe- 
rior qualities, for which they have become ex- 
tensively noted throughout the West. From 
its circular we learn that this establishment is 
the oldest in the Western States, having manu- 
factured the steel scouring plow for eighteen 
or twenty years, and always winning first 
premiums at State and county fairs. The 
establishment is capable of making fifteen 
plows per day." 

Say Richmond and Vallette, in 1857: 
Subsequently, this establishment passed into 
the hands of Mr. N. Boughton, who carried 
it on under the name of the Naperville Agri- 
cultural Works, who, having enlarged its ca- 
pacity, employed about sixty hands. These 
workmen, with others employed by manufact- 
uring establishments here, on public days 
made the streets of Naj^erville lively, espe- 
cially on one 4th of July, 1870, when a dis- 
pute arose between some of them and the 
German citizens of the place about some 
trifling matter of no vital interest, which re- 
quired the utmost efforts of Mr. J. J. Hunt, 
then Police Magistrate, to settle, or rather to 
prevent violence from growing out of, for he 
made no attempt to investigate the " true in- 
wardness " of it, which undoubtedly had been 
bottled up and escaped from such confine- 
ments down the throats and thence into the 
brains of a few otherwise " real good fel- 
lows." Mr. Hunt interposed between the 
unctuous aggressors and the objects of their 
resentment, when they reconsidered their res- 
olution and retreated, muttering, as they 



went, something about the Dutchman, 

and peace was restored. 

Mr. Boughton, not long after this, removed 
the establishment to Chicago, and took these 
" real good fellows " along with him. Hence 
they did not make " real good plows," but an 
inferior article, and his business ran down, 
but, after a brief cessation, the business was 
resumed again in Naperville. 

Messrs. Strauss & Getsch, who now turn out 
plows after the first perfect mold, invented 
by Mr. A. S. Jones, the original proprietor. 

There were two breweries in Naperville in 
1857, where the famous beverage of lager 
beer was made. Their annual consumption 
of barley was then 15,000 bushels, and of 
hops 11,000 pounds. Their capacity of 
manufacture was then 186,000 gallons annu- 
ally, which brought in to the manufacturers 
about $150,000 per year. 

There is now (1882) but one brewery in 
operation here, which was established by John 
Senger in 1850. It consumes annually 10,- 
000 bushels of barley and from 6,000 to 7,- 
000 pounds of hops. It makes about five 
thousand barrels of beer annually, which is 
sold at Chicago and through the country 
around. 

From the Naperville Clarion of July 25, 
1877, we take the following, to show the con- 
dition of the town at that time: 

"Naperville of to-day is an enterprising 
city of about two thousaud inhabitants, the 
largest and most important in the county. 
It is situated in the heart of one of the finest 
agricultural districts of Northern Illinois, 
and the fertile acres and healthful climate 
have contributed to make up Du Page County 
one of the wealthiest sections of the State. 
The city is located on a series of elevations 
overlooking the surroundiug landscape of hill 
and dale which, with the glistening waters of 
Du Page River, seen here and there as they 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



219 



roll through the valleys, form a pleasant view 
to the beholder. 

The streets, which are fringed with shade 
trees, are regularly laid out, and mostly 
graded and provided with sidewalks. Upon 
the business thoroughfares are many two and 
three story blocks, mostly of brick or stone, 
comprising stores and business houses, con- 
structed in modern style of architecture, and 
presenting a front scarcely inferior to the 
business streets of our larger cities. 

The writer of the above, in his further de- 
scription of the place, speaks of the follow- 
ing material interests and business firms then 
prominently known here. Eight churches 
are noted, a district school, the Northwestern 
College, and hotels, among which the Pre- 
emption House was named as an old land- 
mark. The tile and brick works of Messrs. 
Martin & King; the stone quarries of Mr. J. 
Salfisberg; the cheese factory of George H. 
Hunt; the Du Page Valley Mills, under the 
management of L. Rosentreter, the one orig- 
inally built by Joseph Naper; Mr. William 
Shimps, carriage factory; the drug store of 
Mr. F. Morse; Mr. Theo German's merchant 
tailoring house; Willard Scott & Co.'s dry- 
goods store; Messrs. Collins & Naper' s store; 
Mr. P. Beckman's leather and shoe findings 
store; Messrs. Rickert & Vance's blacksmith - 
ing business; Mr. Fred Long's furniture 
hi 'Use; Mr. C. Scherer's hardware store ; Mr. D. 
Strubler's carriage factory; Messrs. Escher & 
Drisler's grocery; Mr. M. Weismantel's jew- 
elry store; Willard Scott, Sr., & Co.'s Bank; 
Mr. L. S. Shafer's planing-mill; Mr. J. Hil 
terbrand's carriage factory; Mr. Martin Fest's 
boot and shoe factory; Messrs. Reuss& Diet- 
er's clothing store; Mr. P. Marlin's flour and 
feed store; Mr. M. Brown's store; Messrs. 
Ditzler & Hosier's store; Messrs. Dunlap & 
Co.'s grocery; Mr. R. H. Wagner's saddlery 
establishment; Mr. W. S. Latshaw's grocery; 



Mr. John Pfister's hardware store; Dr. H. C. 
Daniels' paint, oil and drug store; Mr. P. 
Strubler's grocery store; Messrs. Ehrhardt & 
Bros.' boot and shoe store ; Mr. George 
Strubler's livery stable; Mrs. Lindeman's toy 
store; Mr. L. G. Kent's grocery; Mr. P. 
Schmelzer's bakery; Mr. M. B. Powell's drugs 
store; Messrs. J. Ehrhardt & Co.'s boot and 
shoe store; Mr. C. Schultz's cigar store; Mr. 
A. Scott's grocery; Mr. M. Hemmer's furni- 
ture store; Mr. B. J. Slicks' grocery; Mr. H. 
L. Peasley's dry goods store; Messrs. W. H. 
Hillegar & Co.'s hai'dware store; and Mr. C. 
H. Finley's photograph gallery; Mr. C. Ken- 
dig's dental rooms and photograph gallery; 
Mr. Jacob Saylor's lumberyard; Messrs. Hart- 
runf & Son's lumberyard; Mr. C. Boettger's 
meat market; Mr. D. Garst's meat market; 
Thomas Saylor's ice cream and confectionery 
store. Also shoemakers as follows: J. Con- 
grave, Compte, G. Friess, G. Fosha, J. 

Fehlman, Mr. Knetzger, J. Stubeurauch and 
Jacob Zimmerman; Mr. Obermayer's cigar 
factory; Mr. F. Strahecker's blacksmith shop; 
Mr.W. Lent's blacksmith shop; Messrs. Strausz 
& Getsch, proprietors of the plow factory; 
Messrs. Bauer Bros., blacksmith shop, and Mr. 
A. Hartrunf's blacksmith shop ; Mr. J. J. 
Hunt's hardware store; Alfred Shafer's car- 
penter shop; Mat Stevens' carpenter shop; 
R. Swarz's blacksmith shop; John Herbert's 
harness shop; Walter Good's paint shop; 
Francis Saylor's carriage factory; Mr. Arm- 
bruster's and Mr. Mueller's wagon shops; 
Fred Miller's taxidermist and painting estab- 
lishment; Mr. Brussel's livery stable; Fred 
Kaylor's clothing store ; Sir. Schloessler's 
cigar factory; and Mr. Michael Hines' shoe 
shop. 

NORTHWESTERN COLLEGE. 

The Northwestern College, under the aus- 
pices and patronage of the Evangelical Asso- 
ciation, is located at Naperville. The college 



220 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



building is an elegant, substantial and com- 
modious structure of stone, containing spa- 
cious recitation rooms, a large chapel, society 
halls, reading room, laboratory, and other 
rooms for special college purposes. The sit- 
uation of the building and grounds is in the 
finest part of the village, on a moderate eleva- 
tion, affording a commanding view of the 
rich and beautiful country all around to a 
distance of many miles. 

The college was instituted at Plainfield, 
Will Co., 111., in the fall of 1861. Prior to 
this time, there had been no college institu- 
tion under the support and patronage of the 
Evangelical Association. With the exception 
of several seminaries in the east, no higher 
schools of learning had been sustained by the 
denomination. Indeed, it may be said that 
the organization of Northwestern College is 
the mark of a new departure iu the history 
of the enterprises of this young and growing 
church. It had long been verified that de- 
nominational schools inured greatly to the 
benefit of the churches which they represent- 
ed. Leading men, ministers and laymen, 
believing that the means to support and ma- 
terial to furnish a college were in the pos- 
session of the church, strongly advocated the 
establishment oE such an institution. The 
Illiuois and Wisconsin Conferences of the 
church were the leaders in this movement. 
Accordingly, a deputation of citizens of Plain- 
field was sent to the sessions of the confer- 
ences in the spring of 1851, with overtures for 
the location of the school in that village. An 
agreement was effected. There was at this time 
a township high school building in process 
of erection at Plainfield. This was conveyed 
to the Trustees of the college, and in the fall, 
when the building was completed, the school 
was opened under the name of Plainfield Col- 
lege. 

Notwithstanding the fact that the college 



opened its doors to the public during the dark 
and lowering days of the first years of the 
war of the rebellion, when public thought 
and interest was intent upon the question of 
the safety of the greater institution — our 
united country; when thousands of young 
men, the flower of the land, went forth to the 
tented camp and the battle-field — notwith 
standing these discouraging circumstances, 
the institution had an auspicious beginning. 
At the end of the first year, the Indiana and 
Iowa Conferences added their support to the 
undertaking. There was a fair attendance of 
students during the first year, with an in- 
crease from abroad from term to term. The 
institution received its regular collegiate 
chater in 1865. With the growth of the 
number of regular college classes, the num 
ber of instructors was increased. The first 
class of graduates went out in 1866, since 
which time the college has annually sent out 
from her halls a greater or less number of 
graduates into the active arena of practical 
life. 

In 1864, the name of the institution was 
changed to Northwestern College. While 
public interest in the school was widening 
and manifesting itself in an increase of pat- 
ronage from a distance, it soon became ap- 
parent that certain circumstances essential to 
the permanent growth of the college had not 
been practically anticipated when PI ainfield 
was chosen for its location. The building 
soon proved insufficient for the purposes of 
the school. Moreover, the fact that Plain- 
field was " off the road, " eight miles distant 
from the nearest railroad station, was found 
to be increasingly prejudicial as the stage 
coach as a traveling conveyance became more 
and more unpopular. This naturally led to 
the agitation of the question of removal to 
some location more easily accessible. While 
the citizens of Plainfield, as might be ex- 



NAPEIIVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



221 



pec ted, strenuously opposed the proposition, 
facte and circumstances seemed, from year to 
year, to strengthen the warrant to adopt such 
a measure. Various places held out induce- 
ments to the Trustees to be chosen as a new 
location. Among these, Naperville, awake to 
the fact that Northwestern College would 
prove a valuable acquisition, proposed to give 
$25,000 toward the erection of the buildings, 
provided that town were chosen. In the 
spring of 1870, nine years after the college 
was opened at Plainfield, after a long and 
animated debate, first on the question of 
making the ohange, and second as to the pref- 
erence between proposed places, the Board of 
Trustees decided on a removal to Naperville. 

The fall term of 1870 was opened in the 
new building. The citizens of Naperville 
manifested a fair appreciation of their newly 
acquired privileges. The facilities of the 
school were, in many particulars, consider- 
ably enlarged, and Northwestern College en- 
tered upon a new career of growth and pros- 
perity. The history of its development will 
best aj>pear in the following reference to its 
various interests. 

Endowment. — From the opening of the 
school, scholarships of various prices and of 
different periods of validity were sold, with a 
view to the establishment of an endowment 
fund. By the addition of direct donations, 
this fund increased from year to year with 
varying degrees of rapidity, so that at the 
present time (1882), it has reached the sum 
of $90,000. 

Faculty. — When the school was opened, 
the faculty consisted of five teachers, viz., 
Profs. J. E. Khodes, John E. Miller, S. W. 
Marston, Mrs. Emily Huntington Miller and 
Miss C. M. Harlacher. Rev. A. A. Smith, 
A. M., was elected President of the college in 
3S61, but did not assume the position until 
the fall of 1862. At the same time, H. C. 



Smith, A. M., was appointed Professor of 
Music. In 1863, Rev. F. W. Heidner, A. 
M., was elected to the Professorship of the 
German Language and Literature. In 1864, 
upon the resignation of Prof. J. E. Miller, 
Rev. John H. Leas, A. M., was made Profes- 
sor of Ancient Languages. In 1868, upon 
the resignation of Prof. J. E. Rhodes, H. EL 
Rassweiler, A. M. , was appointed Professor 
of Mathematics and Natural Science. In 
1869, Prof. J. H. Leas having resigned, H. 
C. Smith, A. M. , was made Professor of An- 
cient Languages and Literature, and was suc- 
ceeded in the Department ot Instraniental 
Music by Miss Emma M. Corbin. Upon the 
removal of the college to Naperville in 1870, 
the faculty was materially increased by the 
appointment of Rev. A. Huelster, A. M., as 
Professor of Greek (Prof. Smith remaining 
in charge of the Latin); C. F. Rassweiler, A. 
M., as Tutor; Miss Nancy J. Cunningham as 
Preceptress and Teacher of Drawing; Rev. J. 
G. Cross, A. M., Principal of Commercial 
Department; and Miss Minnie P. Cody as 
Teacher of Instrumental Music. In 1871, J. 
L. Rockey was added as assistant teacher in 
the Commercial Department. In 1875, C. 
F. Rassweiler was promoted as Adjunct Pro- 
fessor of Mathematics. In 1876, G. W. Sind- 
linger, A. M., was appointed Assistant 
Teacher of Greek, and, three years later, he 
succeeded Prof. A. Huelster as Professor of 
that department. In 1878, Miss Cunning- 
ham resigned as Preceptress, and was suc- 
ceeded by Miss Lizzie E. Baker, who served 
one year, after which Mrs. N. J. Knicker- 
backer, nee Cunningham, was re-appointed 
Preceptress and Professor of History and 
English Literature. In 1879, Prof. Cross, 
of the Commercial Department, was succeed- 
ed by F. W. Streets. In 1881, the Professor 
of Mathematics and Natural Science resigned 
the first-named department, and C. F. Rass- 



222 



HISTORY OF J)U PAGE COUNTY. 



weiler was made Professor of Mathematics. 
In 1877, Miss Minnie P. Cody was succeeded 
by Miss Rose M. Cody as Teacher of Instru- 
mental Music, and in 1878, Prof. H. C. Smith 
was placed in charge of this department. 

At the present date, the faculty of North- 
western College is constituted as follows: 

Rev. A. A. Smith, A. M., President, Pro- 
fessor of Mental and Moral Science. 

Rev. F. W. Heidner, A. M., B. D., Profes- 
sor of the German Language and Literature. 

H. C. Smith, A. M., Professor of the Latin 
Language and Literature. 

H. H. Rassweiler, A. M., Professor of Nat- 
ural Science. 

C. F. Rassweiler. A. M., Professor of Math- 
ematics. 

G. W. Sindlinger, A. M., Professor of the 
Greek Language and Literature. 

Mrs. N. J. Knickerbacker, Preceptress, 
Professor of History and English Literature. 

H. F. Kletzing, A. M.. Assistant Teacher 
of Mathematics. 

J. L. Nichols, A. M., Teacher of Commer- 
cial Studies and Penmanship. 

H. C. Smith, Professor of Music. 

Mrs. Jennie E. Nauman, Assistant Teacher 
of Piano and Organ. 

Miss Sadie Schutt, Teacher of Painting 
and Drawing. 

Students. — The attendance of students 
from (he beginning has been encouraging. 
Notwithstanding the fact that, during the 
history of the institution to this time, the 
country has passed through at least two seri- 
ous financial crises, and while others more 
local and temporary circumstances have 
affected the attendance of students at the 
higher schools generally, the annual enroll- 
ment at Northwestern College has not been 
remarkably fluctuating. The attendance 
during the last collegiate year (1881-82) was 
about three hundred. 



Graduates.- — The graduates of the college, 
now precisely 100 in number, are distributed 
over the whole country. These, with the 
hundreds who did not fully complete a course 
of study, represent most of the professional 
and industrial pursuits of life. As a class, 
they are successful men and women, who, by 
their integrity and industry, are reciprocat- 
ing the honor bestowed on them by their 
Alma Mater. 

Departments and Courses of Study. — Be- 
sides the regular collegiate or literary de- 
partment, the college maintains a commercial, 
a German, a music and an art department. 
To meet all demands in different lines of 
study, there are nine courses of study pro- 
vided, viz., classical, Latin scientific, Greek 
scientific, English scientific, pure German, 
English German, commercial, music and art. 

Patronage. — At first the patronage of the 
college was limited to the territory of the 
Illinois and Wisconsin Conferences. Now 
the Illinois, Wiscoasin, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, 
Michigan, New York, Canada, South Indiana, 
Des Moines and Kansas — eleven conferences, 
are pledged to its support, and are represented 
in the Board of Trustees. In the attendance 
of students, all these territorial divisions, be 
sides other States, are annually represented 

Auxiliary Features. — As indicating the 
general activity and practical spirit which 
pervades the institution, mention may be 
made of various organizations maintained un- 
der the auspices of the faculty, but conducted 
chiefly by the students. Among these are 
four literary societies, for practice in public 
speaking, debate and general parliamentary 
procedure; a scientific association, for the 
maintenance of a lively interest in the pur- 
suit, of scientific knowledge, building up the 
college museum and providing occasional 
lectures; two religious societies, the Young 
Men's Christian Association and the Young 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP 



323 



Ladies' Christian Association, holding regu- 
lar meetings for conference and prayer, fur- 
nishing a reading room, and exerting a salu- 
tary religious influence over the whole school. 

Union Biblical Institute. — In the year 1875, 
a theological school, under the name of Union 
Biblical Institute, was opened in connection 
with the college. Rev. R. Yeakel, formerly 
one of the Bishops of the church, is Princi- 
pal. This school provides a course of study 
suitable for those who contemplate entering 
the profession of the Christian ministry. 

Church. — In 1870, a new congregation or 
society, consisting of teachers, students and 
citizens, was organized. Their Sabbath serv- 
ices and Sabbath school have, from the begin- 
ning, been held in the chapel of the college. 
The Sabbath school of this congregation is 
one of the largest and most interesting in the 
whole denomination. The pastor is appoint- 
ed annually by the Illinois Conference. The 
pastors up to this time have been Rev. E. E. 
Condo, Rev. W. W. Shuler, Rev. H. Messner, 
Rev. W. H. Bucks and Rev. C. Schmucker. 

Object and Outlook. — The object of the col- 
lege is to provide for the young men and 
women who are intrusted to its care and in- 
struction the advantages of a thorough, lib- 
eral education, under such moral and relig- 
ious influences as to associate in its culture a 
high degree of mental and moral develop- 
ment, and the inculcation of such principles 
and habits of thought as will best fit the 
student not only for extensive usefulness in 
life, but to meet successfully life's inevitable 
vicissitudes, whether of prosperity or adversity. 
The prospects for the future of the institution 
are bright. With an increasing sentiment in 
its favor among the people of the church under 
whose immediate patronage it exists, and a 
growing appreciation on the part of the gen- 
eral public, Northwestern College is destined 
to take a prominent place among the educa- 



tional institutions of the West. — H. H Rass- 

WEILER. 

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 

This, with one exception, is the oldest 
Congregational Church organized in the State. 
The first organization of this character was 
the church at Mendon, formed in February, 
1833, and, on the 13th day of July follow- 
ing, ' ' By a request of a number of persons 
at Du Page to be organized into a Church of 
Christ, the Rev. Jonathan Porter and Rev. 
N. C. Clark, missionaries for this county, and 
Rev. C. W. Babbitt, of Tazewell County, met, 
and, after prayer and some appropriate re- 
marks, proceeded to examine the credentials 
of applicants." So reads the old record of 
the first Congregational Church, but one, in 
Illinois. 

On this examination, the following mem- 
bers were received: Israel P. Blodgett, Avice 
Blodgett, Robert Strong. Caroline W. Strong, 
Constant Abbott, Isaac Clark, Clarissa A. 
Clark, Leister Peet, Henry H. Goodrich, 
Eliza S. Goodrich, Samuel Goodrich, Lydia 
Goodrich, Pomeroy Goodrich, Lucy M. Good- 
rich. 

With these sixteen persons as members, the 
organization was completed, and Isaac Clark, 
Pomeroy Goodrich and Leister Peet were 
chosen the Elders of the church. The form 
of organization was at first Presbyterian, but 
soon after, it was, by a unanimous vote, 
changed to the Congregational, and the title 
of Deacon substituted for that of Elder. 

The record of the acts of these Christian 
pioneers is exceedingly interesting. Their 
earliest recorded resolutions provide for the 
thorough distribution of tracts; the visitation 
by the pastor and some member of the church 
of all accessible families; and the imperative 
necessity of attending all the stated meetings 
of the church. It being declared the duty of 
the Moderator to note all absentees and call 



224 



HISTOKY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



for satisfactory explanation at the first meet- 
ing which they attended after the delin- 
quency. 

These resolutions well exhibit the deter- 
mined spirit of loyalty to their principles 
which distinguished these early Christians, 
who thus "builded better than they knew." 
The spark they lighted has become a flame, 
burning brightly to-day upon the altar they 
erected so many years ago. They built the 
first steeple upon these prairies, and, from 
year to year, have Dot only increased their 
membership, but have sent out to many later 
organizations members who have carried the 
same spirit. It may well be styled the parent 
church of this whole region. Rev. N. C 
Clark, one of the organizers, was the first 
pastor. The meetings were for some time 
held in his house, and afterward, sometimes 
in the " schoolhouse near Samuel Goodrich's," 
in tbe "schoolhouse in Naperville," and in 
the houses or barns of different members. 

The first money raised for the support of 
the Gospel is spoken of in the minutes of a 
meeting held early in 1834, when it was voted 
to raise $100 for that purpose. At this time, 
and for some years afterward, the church was 
materially aided by the American Home Mis- 
sionary Society. 

Mr. Clark served as pastor until July, 1836, 
when he was succeeded by Rev. E. Strong, 
who remained about a year. After his de- 
parture, Rev. Jeremiah Porter was regularly 
installed as pastor, and served in that capac- 
ity until July, 1840. 

On November 5, 1841, at a church meeting, 
it was resolved "that the church deem it ex- 
pedient and proper to revive the ancient cus- 
tom of annual thanksgivings; and that we 
will observe a day of thanksgiving and praise 
during the present autumn, which is here- 
after to be appointed." No record is made of 
services held, but in the following year, 1842, 



on December 2, it was resolved " that, as a 
church, we observe Thursday, the 8th of De- 
cember inst., as a day of thanksgiving, and 
this community be invited to unite with us in 
the public exercises of the day. This was 
probably the first public celebration of this 
custom in the county. 

From 1840 to 1845, Rev. O. Lyman, Rev 
J. H. Prentiss and Rev. E. W. Champlaiu 
successively served as pastors. Rev. J. H. 
Prentiss, was installed on the 12th of July, 
1842. 

On January 28, 1843, it was resolved 
" That the style of this church hereafter be 
' The First Congregational Church of Naper- 
ville,' " and later, in 1845, amongst some 
changes made with a view of according more 
fully with the statute in regard to church or- 
ganization, the name of the society was de- 
clared to be "The First Congregational 
Church and Society of Naperville," by which 
name it is known to-day. 

In September, Josiah Strong, John J. Fra- 
zier, Pomeroy Goodrich, George Blackman 
and Hiram Branch were elected Trustees. 

As early as 1838, a resolution was adopted 
to build a house of worship, and a committee 
appointed to select a location. Naperville 
was chosen as the place to build the church, 
and the building used by the society at pres 
ent was erected in 1846, and, on the 27th day 
of January, 1S47, dedicated to the worship 
and service of Almighty God. The land was 
donated by Capt. Morris Sleight, en condi- 
tion that no part of it ever be used as a bury- 
ing-ground, and that upon the contemplated 
house of worship a cupola for a bell be erected. 

For eleven years the pulpit was filled by 
Rev. Hope Brown, who was installed Novem- 
ber 11, 1845, and resigned his pastorate in 
October, 1856. 

Since that time, the following ministers 
have successively served the people as pastors : 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



227 



Rev. E. Barber, 1856-59; Rev. C. P. Felch. 
1859-64; Rev. E. I. Alden, 1864-66; Rev. J. 
C. Beekman, 1866-68; Rev. J. W. Cunning- 
ham. 1868-74; Rev. C. F. Reed, 1874-76; 
Rev. J. W. Hartshorn, 1876-78 ; and the 
Rev. J. H. Dixon, from 1879, and who is 
still, at the present date, pastor. 

From the beginning of the organization to 
the present time, the society has had, alto- 
gether, 346 members. The present actual 
membership of the church is ninety-nine 
members. 

The present Deacons of the church are 
Pomeroy Goodrich, one of the original six- 
teen members; E. R. Loomis, H. W. Knick- 
erbacker and C. H. Goodrich. There has 
been a Sabbath school connected with the 
church from a very early day. The present 
Superintendent, H. H. Cody, has filled that 
position for twenty-two years, having first 
been elected April 7, 1860. The Sabbath 
school services are held directly after the Sab- 
bath morning services, and are attended by 
about one hundred persons. The school is 
supplied with a fine library, comprising sev- 
eral hundred volumes. Mr. Eli Ditzler, the 
Librarian, has served in that capacity for 
about ten years. There are held two regular 
Sabbath services, and, during the week, two 
prayer meetings — the young people's meeting 
on Tuesday evening, and the regular church 
meeting on Wednesday evening. For fifty 
years, this beacon light has shed its rays over 
this people. Its power has been felt not 
alone within the limits of Du Page County. 
There are churches in Western States that 
owe much to its early influences. In North- 
ern Dakota, in Southern Texas, in Western 
wilds and in Eastern cities, are influences 
working which can be traced directly to this 
church. Yes, farther than this have its 
teachings been carried, for in far-off Japan 
the " old, old story " has been told to many 



an eager listener by one who grew up within 
the shadow of its walls, and sat, Sabbath after 
Sabbath, in its pews, drinking in the blessed 
truths which she has since carried across the 
waters to the joy and salvation of many 
precious souls. 

No one can estimate the extent of the work 
which has been done, but the results which 
can be plainly seen are enough to encourage 
its present supporters to put forth the most 
earnest efforts in the future. — A. B. Cody. 

EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

The Episcopalians in this village have a 
very beautiful house for public worship, 
which has attracted the attention of the 
brethren of surrounding parishes as being a 
model in beauty and style. They likewise 
have a rectory on an adjoining lot, built in a 
style correspondiug with the church. The 
lots on which these buildings stand are or- 
namented with shrubs and trees, imparting 
to the exterior a pleasing effect, to which the 
interior of the church, in style, completeness 
and furniture, fully corresponds. 

Every organized church t>r society has a 
history, but every one has not instituted con- 
tinued and preserved records from which the 
historian can write it. Not so with this 
church. Its rectors aud officers have, from 
time to time, furnished material from which 
the following sketch is taken. The first serv- 
ice of the Episcopal Church held in this vil- 
lage was by the Rev. Andrew H. Cornish, 
missionary of Joliette, November 16, 1838. 
In the years 1839, 1840 and 1841, Mr. Cor- 
nish officiated at irregular intervals. The 
Right Rev. Philander Chase, D. D., first 
Bishop of Illinois, made his first visitation 
and officiated in public service May 27, 1839. 
Previous to this and for several subsequent 
years, there being no organization sufficient 
to hold church people together, they sought 



228 



HISTORY OF i)U PAGE COUNTY. 



fellowship and worshiped with those de- 
nominations having houses of worship till 
June 4, 1850, when a parochial association 
was organized by some thirty persons asso- 
ciating themselves together by the name and 
title of the Parish of St. John's Church, Na- 
perville. In accordance with the purpose of 
this association, July 22, 1850, a parish or- 
ganization was accomplished. At this meet- 
ing, the Rev. Daniel Brown, rector of St. 
John's Church, Lockport, in this diocese, 
presided, and Mr. James D. Wright was 
chosen Secretary. Messrs. S. P. Sherwood 
and Charles Earl were elected Wardens, and 
Messrs. James F. Wight, Charles J. Sellen 
and Delcar Sleight, chosen Vestrymen. This 
organization may be considered a kind of 
starting point, though it effected very little 
in the establishment of a living church; it 
acted as an incentive to more frequent serv- 
ices than would have been held had it not 
been made. Meantime, worship was still 
held with other denominations up to the year 
1858, except occasionally, when some neigh- 
boring rector or the Bishop of the diocese 
visited this place and held service. 

In the year 1858, some church ladies of 
this village feeling deeply the deprivation of 
the mode of worship to which they had been 
accustomed in their beloved church, visited 
Aurora and solicited Rev. V. Spalding, officiat- 
ing rector there, to give the friends of the 
church in this village service at stated times. 
Mr. Spalding consented, and continued to do 
so until he left Aurora, and here it should 
not be omitted that the ladies in this church, 
from its first organization, have been most 
zealous and efficient workers. Without their 
aid, the church and rectory could not have 
been built, at least so soon, and the church 
could not have prospered at it has. For this 
reason, one of the rectors who has had charge 
of this parish, remarked that the church 



ought to have been named St. Mary's Church, 
instead of St. John's Church, of Naperville. 

During the year 1858, the Rev. T. N. Mor- 
rison, of Aurora, officiated occasionally. 
During the years 1861 and 1862, Rev. Messrs. 
Wilkinson and Gilbert, of Joliet, were en- 
gaged to hold service at stated times. 

The Rev. S. T. Allen, of Aurora, held serv 
ice once every Sunday, from 1861 to 1865, in 
houses of worship belonging to other denomi- 
nations or in Mr. Sleight's hall. Mr. Allen 
may be said to be the first rector of St. 
John's Church, of Naperville, and during his 
rectorship the church had prospered to such 
an extent as to be troublesome to those de- 
nominations which had generously granted to 
churchmen the privilege of holding service in 
the churches belonging to the denominations, 
consequently they began to estimate the cost 
of building a church of their own. 

In 1864, Mr. Sleight presented to the 
church the lot for the church building, and, 
June 1, of the same year, the corner-stone 
was laid by the Right Rev. H. J. Whitehouse, 
Bishop of the diocese of Illinois. 

January 1, 1865, the church was open for 
the first service, the Rev. Mr. Allen officiat- 
ing, and, April 24, of the same year, the 
church was solemnly consecrated by Bishop 
Whitehouse, assisted by the Revs. S. J. Allen, 
Clinton Lock, of Chicago, and C. A. Gilbert, 
of Joliet. Mr. Allen closed his labor here 
by resignation. He was highly esteemed 
and beloved by the members of the parish, 
and zealously aided and encouraged them in 
the building of the church, and he possessed 
the business talent necessary to insure suc- 
cess. ' The consecration service was the last 
service in which he participated in this vil- 
lage, and the members of the parish parted 
with him with sincere regret. 

June 14, 1865, an invitation was extended 
to the Rev. J. H. Knowles to take charge of 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



229 



the parish, which he accepted. Under his 
charge, the church continued to prosper. 
April 17, 1867, Mrs. D. Sleight presented to 
the church a deed of the lot adjoining, on 
which to erect a rectory. June 23, Mr. 
Knowles tendered his resignation, which was 
accepted with regret. 

November 17, 1867, Eev. J. T. Chambers 
received a call to the rectorship, which he 
accepted, and held his first service on the 
twenty-second Sunday after Trinity. During 
his rectorship, the rectory was built, and oc- 
cupied by the rector August 29. 1870. May 
31, 1872, Mr. Chambers resigned. He was a 
hard worker in the vineyard and a good man. 

August 14, Rev. James Cornell was called 
to the roctorship. and served as rector one 
year and seven months, when he resigned. 
Mr. Cornell was succeeded by the Rev. Wal- 
ter F. Lloyd, who commenced his duties as 
rector May 3, 1874, and resigned May 20, 
1875. 

July 1, 1876, Rev. William Allen Fisk, 
having accepted of a call, entered upon his 
duties as rector, it being the third Sunday 
after Trinity. During his rectorship, the 
church was enlarged so as to nearly double 
its seating capacity. Work was commenced 
on the enlargement of the church in June, 
1878. It was finished and re-opened with 
solemn service by the Bishop of the diocese, 
on the 26th of November, 1878. Mr. Fisk 
resigned on the 1st of November, 1880, and 
was succeeded by the present rector, Kov. 
Martin V. Averill, who accepted of a call and 
officiated the first time July 31, 1881. 

The church is out of debt, and the present 
rector is highly esteemed by his parishion- 
ers. 

No history of this church would do justice 
which did not speak of Miss Alethea Gibbs, 
who may properly be called the Patron Saint 
of St. John's Church of Naperville. She 



not only contributed largely toward building 
the church, and when the building and its 
sum >undings were complete, paid the last 
few hundred dollars yet due, and, through 
her generosity, the church was out of debt. 
This made the amount paid into the building 
fund by Miss Gibbs, $868. Miss Gibbs had 
frequently expressed a desire to live to see a 
church of her own faith built in Naperville. 
She watched the progress of the building to- 
ward completion with great interest, and 
finally enjoyed the satisfaction of witnessing 
the consecration of the church by her be- 
loved and now departed Bishop. Soon after, 
this Miss Gibbs was called to her final rest. 

The number of baptisms in the church rec- 
ord is 150; confirmations, 7S; present com- 
municants, 92; burials, 46; marriages, 19. 

The cost of the rectory as first built was 
$3,000; the cost of the addition, $2,200; the 
cost of the rectory, $2,500. — Selinus M. Skin- 
ner. 

temperance work. 

The loss of records and the death or re- 
moval from the place of those engaged in the 
early temperance work in Naperville make it 
impossible to give more than a very general 
outline of that work. 

The first temperance organization, so far 
as we have been able to learn, was known as 
"The Sons of Temperance." It was formed 
some time during the fall of 1850. For sev- 
eral years it prospered greatly. At one time 
it numbered over three hundred members, 
and included among the number every promi- 
nent business and professional man of the 
town. 

The Daughters of Temperance also had a 
lodge, organized about the same time, and 
published for some time a weekly paper de- 
voted to the interests of the order. Who 
the first officers of these two organizations 
were, how long they flourished, how lasting 



230 



HISTORY OF PU PAGE COUNTY. 



the effects of their labors, and what was the 
cause of their decay, we have been unable to 
discover. The Good Templars were the next 
to take up the work in the temperance cause. 
The lodge was first organized some time 
during the war of the rebellion, the exact 
date we have been unable to leara. Their 
lodge has been in existence for nearly twenty 
years, and has had a checkered experience; 
seasons of great prosperity have been followed 
by long periods of rest, during which its life 
seemed extinct, but after a time it would re- 
vive and again prosper. March 31, 1873, 
this lodge suspended, and no meetings were 
again held until March 1, 1878, when J. Q. 
Detwile re-organized it, with C. Kendig, Fred 
Long, David- Frost, W. M. Hillegas, George 
Porter. J. K. Lutz and several others as char- 
ter members. Regular weekly meetings were 
held by the lodge from this re-organization 
until recently, when, owing to lack of inter- 
est, it suspended active work, and is now en- 
joying a season of rest. Dr. Ross, a lecturer 
of some repute, delivered a series of lectures 
on temperance during the winter of 1872-73, 
and organized what was then called a Tem- 
perance Alliance. The work of this organi- 
zation consisted in securing signers to its 
pledge by personal solicitation. Its exist- 
ence, however, did not exceed two years, and 
the effect of its work is not now apparent. 

The Blue Ribbon Club was one of the 
strongest organizations ever formed in Na- 
perville. About the 1st of December, 1878, 
Liberty Jones, a disciple of Francis Murphy, 
commenced to labor in Naperville. His 
efforts, however, were but poorly repaid for 
some time. He finally succeeded, however, 
in interesting in his work Hiram S. Cody, a 
talented young lawyer of Naperville, and the 
two together succeeded in organizing a club, 
about January 1, 1879. Mr Cody was its first 
President, and continued to hold the office 



until his death. March 3, 1879. Mr. S. W. 
Smith was elected to succeed him, and held 
the office until March 9, 1880, when he re- 
tired in favor of D. B. Givler. June 26, 
1880, the club adjourned for the summer, 
and, notwithstanding some well-directed ef- 
forts at resuscitation, it has never been re- 
vived. The club held weekly meetings for 
more than two years, and at one time had 
710 members. The effects of its work have 
been lasting. September 13, 1881, the Na- 
perville Temperance Alliance was organized, 
Prof. H. H. Rassweiler being its first Presi- 
dent, and A. B. Cody, its Secretary. The 
object of the Alliance was to combine for 
united action all other temperance bodies of 
the place. It has a woman's section, a chil- 
dren's sections and a voter's section, and is 
to be a branch of a county organization of 
the same general plan, which in turn is to 
be an auxilliary of a State association. The 
Alliance has held monthly meetings since its 
organization, and, at the municipal elec- 
tion, in May, 1882, secured sixty-nine votes 
for its ticket, which was run on a prohibition 
platform. — H. H. Goodrich. 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

As early as 1835, a Methodist Circuit, 
where stated preaching was held as often as 
once a month at appointed places, was formed, 
including the whole of Du Page County as 
now located. Rev. Wilder B. Mark was Pre- 
siding Elder. The next year. Rev. John 
Clark succeeded him. Preaching was now 
sustained at Naperville, at intervals of two 
weeks, till 1817, where a church was built on 
land donated to the society by Morris Sleight. 
Rev. O. Lyman was first pastor, who was suc- 
ceeded by Rev. Hope Brown, who remained 
with them till 1856, when he was succeeded 
by Rev. E. Barber. In 1857, the church 
membership was sixty-two. 



NAPEHVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



231 



BAPTIST CHURCH. 

In 1843, there being a few Baptists at this 
place, Rev. Morgan Edwards made an effort 
to organize a church of that faith, which was 
crowned with success. A society was formed, 
and, though their numbers were small, they 
began to build a house for worship on some 
lots of ground of which they had not yet ob- 
tained a deed. But before they had proceed- 
ed far in their work, a personal difficulty 
arose between the owner of the lots and one 
of the members of the new church to be 
erected on them, and he refused to give the 
expected deed. Meanwhile, the foundation 
had been partly laid, and the work in a good 
state of progress. The builders now proposed 
to remove their materials already on the 
ground to another locality, but the captious 
lot owner forbade. 

This eccentric conduct on his part de- 
manded prompt action on the part of the so- 
ciety, and they, with the assistance of some 
worthy citizens who made common cause 
with them (despite threats of violence), trans- 
planted the foundation stone and other ma- 
terials on the ground to a lot which Lewis 
Ellsworth donated to the society, and here 
the church was erected and nearly finished 
the next year. The Congregational society 
occupied it on each alternate Sabbath for a 
few months, Rev. R. B. Ashley, their first 
pastor, preaching on the day unoccupied by 
the Congregationalists. He was their pastor 
till 1846, and during his term the church in- 
creased in numbers from nine members at 
its commencement to thirty-six. Rev. Allen 
Glos became their uext pastor, remaining 
with them till July, 1848, at the expiratiun 
of whose term the church numbered fifty six 
members. Rev. S. Tucker, D. D.. succeeding 
him. held the charge till October, 1855, when 
he left the church, which now numbered 
ninety six members. Rev. Ira E. Kenney 



was the next pastor, whose term lasted but 
eight months. The church was now in the 
zenith of her prosperity. Their Sabbath 
school numbered about fifty scholars. They 
had enlarged and beautified their church, and 
ornamented it with a belfry, in which a bell 
was hung — the first that ever tolled the tid- 
ings of the Gospel in "these valleys and 
hills." 

The doctrines of Spiritualism now subtly 
crept into the church. Some members with- 
drew, and held spiritual services elsewhere; 
others dropped out silently as a flake of snow 
falls from heaven. But still the main body 
of the society held on and carried the burden, 
with exemplary resolution, till all but a very 
few had "stood from under." 

Rev. George B. Simenson and Rev. E. W. 
Hicks were the two last regular pastors, both of 
whom were estimable men. but causes beyond 
their control had contributed to reduce the 
church in numbers. Students and temporary 
supplies have preached to their congregation 
from time to time since, till the winter of 
L879, since which time the bell has hung in 
silence on its pivots, and the path to the 
church door has been overgrown with green 
grasses. 

GERMAN EVANGELICAL CHURCH. 

This is one of the largest and oldest con- 
gregations of the Evangelical association in 
the State of Illinois. The first two families 
of this society emigrated from Pennsylvania 
to Illinois, and settled in Naperville in the 
year 1836. They were those of Conrad 
Gross, the father of Daniel Gross, a promi- 

i nent resident of Naperville now. and Jacob 
Schnaebli, of whose family there are also 
representatives living in this county. In 
l s :!7. another group of four families, those 
of Martin Escher, the father of George Esch- 

' er, John Rehm, who is still living in Naper- 
ville, Adam Knopp and George Strubler, 



232 



HISTORY OF DU PAOE COUNTY. 



whose sons are now leading citizens of Na- 
perville and vicinity, followed, when the first 
class was organized, by the Rev. Jacob Boos. 
The meetings were held in the houses of Con- 
rad Gross and John Rehm. In connection 
with this, there was another class organized 
at Desplaines, in Cook County, which consti- 
tuted the first two Evangelical preaching 
places in the State of Illinois. In 1838, sev- 
eral other families arrived from Pennsylvania, 
and the Rev. Jacob Boos was succeeded by 
Rev. Einsel, who organized a class in Chicago 
and preached in German in the City Hotel, 
where the present Sherman House stands. 

In Naperville ser /ices were still held in 
private houses and partly in the schoolhouse, 
on Scott's Hill. In 1839, the Revs. Stroh 
and Lintner were in charge of the now con- 
siderably increased congregation, who resid- 
ed in Naperville and in the surrounding 
country, on their farms, which studded the 
most beautiful prairies in Northern Illinois. 
The meetings were still held in private 
houses and in the above-named schoolhouse. 
In 1840, four more families arrived — Schroei- 
gert, Yonngheim. Bishop and Garlach. Up 
to this time, all the families were European 
Germans, except the last three named, who 
were Pennsylvanians. This accession added 
materially to the strength of the society, so 
that th<> private houses and schoolhouse be- 
came too small to accommodate the attendants 
at the public services. This induced the 
Revs. Holfert and Kern to commence the 
erection of the small frame church in the 
western part of Naperville (now occivpied by 
the German Lutheran congregation of this 
place) in 1840. This comfortable meeting- 
house, as it was then regarded, was completed 
in 1841. to the great joy of the earnest and 
devoted membership. The Presiding Elder, 
Father Zinser, who recently died at an ad- 
vanced ago, added much to the prosperity of 



this and other societies that had now been or- 
ganized. 

In 1844, there was a remarkably large in- 
crease of this society of Pennsylvania Ger- 
mans from Pennsylvania. On the 1st of May, 
there arrived fourteen families, among whom 
were those of David Brown, father of Martin 
Brown, now a prominent merchant and es- 
teemed citizen of Naperville, of Adam Hart- 
man, Joseph Bessler and Benjamin Frahlick. 
Two weeks after, sixteen additional families 
arrived, among whom were those of Sam 
Rickert, Sam Tobias and Benjamin Hassler 
and thirteen others, all of whom settled in 
and near Naperville. The little frame church 
now becoming too small, was enlarged by an 
addition, in 1845, so as to accommodate the 
faithful worshipers. 

During the next thirteen years, many other 
families followed their friends to the " beauti- 
ful West" from Pennsylvania and Germany, 
and the society increased numerically to such 
an extent that even the enlarged frame church 
became again too small; hence, the energetic 
Rev. C. Augenstein and the zealous and elo- 
quent Presiding Elder, Sam Baumgaertner, 
induced the now numerous and prosperous 
congregation to build the present substantial 
and commodious brick church, at a cost of 
about $6,000. 

During the winter of 1858-59, while the 
meetings were yet held in the incompleted 
new church, the society enjoyed a glorious 
revival, under the labors of Rev. Sam Dick- 
over, assisted by Rev. G. Kleinknecht, when 
many were converted and added to the 
church, who are still useful members of the 
same. 

From that time to the present, the society 
has enjoyed several marked revivals, as under 
the ministry of the Revs. William Goessele 
and Henry Rohland. 

In the year 1870. by the removal of the 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



233 



Northwestern College to Naperville, the so- 
ciety gained several families from the Ger- 
man members of the college faculty and valu- 
able working force in the students and teach- 
ers, especially in the Sabbath school, so that 
the latter had for several years about four 
hundred members. With the opening of the 
college, in the fall of 1850, an English con- 
gregation was organized in the college 
chapel, which has drawn largely on the mem- 
bership of the parent society. But while the 
members of the mother church have been 
somewhat diminished in numbers, the daugh- 
ter has remarkably prospered, so that her 
membership, up to date (1882), is about two 
hundred. 

During the revival under the Rev. H. Roh- 
land, in 1877, the membership rose to over 
four hundred, but through the death of aged 
members, removals, and through the division 
of the Sabbath schools and the passing over to 
the English congregation of those who prefer 
to worship in English, the membership of 
the German and parent church has been 
somewhat diminished, while, however, in 
reality, the Evangelical Church membership 
in Naperville, as a whole, has gained materi- 
ally, numbering in all about 550. 

The German congregation to which this 
sketch is dovotedisin a prosperous condition, 
and is at present under the faithful pastorate 
of the Rev. J. G. Kleinknecht; but it has in 
its ranks a large number of veterans of the 
or< es. A few years more will remove most 
of them from the church militant to the 
church triumphant, but those who will pass 
away and those that remain have the pleasure 
to know that their church, as one of the old- 
est and largest, has. for many years, been a 
blessing to a large portion of the inhabitants 
of Du Page County by preaching and prac- 
ticing the true religion of Jesus Christ. — F. 
W. Weidner. 



NAPERVILLE PRESS. 

The newspapers of Naperville have been 
published under circumstances adverse to 
success. The earlier inhabitants of the vil- 
lage and immediate vicinity, being largely 
composed of Germans, were not interested in 
the success of an English paper for the rea- 
son that they could read it with difficulty and 
understood less than they could read. Their 
denominational paper was the source from 
which they gleaned all the news they desired 
to hear pertaining to this world or that to 
come. The pioneer custom of exchanging 
commodities of various kinds was practical to 
an extent that took in the local newspaper, so 
that one copy would go the rounds of an en- 
tire school district, doing a great deal of good 
to all readers, but impoverishing the pub- 
lisher. Notwithstanding this custom has be- 
come nearly obsolete, cases occur even in this 
advanced day of civilization, independence 
and prosperity. Then, again, being so near 
the city of Chicago, the newspapers of Na- 
perville, as well as those of other suburban 
towns, have been compelled to eke out an 
existence in the shadow of the metropolitan 
press, circumscribing their patronage, belit- 
tleing their importance and reducing their 
source of revenue to a very limited circle. 
The failures of earlier years may have been 
partially the result of a lack of business tact 
on the part of publishers, but undoubteblv 
the foregoing were the chief causes that re- 
sulted in so many wrecks. 

In December, 1849, Charles J. Sellen is 
sued the first paper published in Naperville, 
or in the county, called the Du Paqe County 
Recorder, and for nine months it had a flour- 
ishing existence. The name was then 
changed to the Dm hoc ratio Plaindealer, and, 
in connection therewith, a small weekly sheet, 
called the Daughter af Temperance, both of 
which soon followed in the wake of their 



234 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



predecessors, and were numbered with things 
past. 

The printing material, however, remained 
in the village, and, in January, 1851, the Du 
Page County Observer appeared under the 
management of Barnes, Humphrey & Keith. 
But, notwithstanding the paper met the de- 
mand of that early day, the former failures 
had so weakened the confidence of the people 
in the enterprise that the subscription list 
never grew to paying proportions. In April, 
1852, Mr. Gershom Matin purchased Mr. 
Humphrey's interest in the paper, and con- 
tinued it two years longer, in connection 
with Barnes & Keith, when it, too, perma- 
nently suspended publication. 

"With increased facilities, the Du Page 
County Journal was started, in the fall of 
1854, by Mr. Charles W. Keith, and was a 
marked improvement on all that had gone 
before. It changed hands rapidly, however, 
from C. W. Keith to Keith, Edson & Co., 
from that firm to J. M Edson, and then to 
E. M. Day, under whose proprietorship the 
Journal office, press, paper, type, materials, 
furniture and all appurtenances and heredita- 
ments thereunto belonging were swept down 
the Du Page River by the freshet of Febru- 
ary, 1857. Portions of the wood type, cases 
and wooden furniture were carried scores of 
miles on the cakes of ice and picked up by 
astonished citizens who went to see the river 
on a rampage. It was decidedly the most 
disastrous "pi" that ever occurred in any 
printing office in Du Page County. 

The News Letter, published by E. H. Eyer, 
came into existence shortly after the Journal 
ceased to appear, but it, too, was destined to 
failure after a prief career. 

Next in order came the Sentinel, published 
by D. B. Birdsall. Its existence terminated 
some time during the year 18G2, and was 
succeeded, in August, 1863, by the Press, 



under the management of R. K. Potter, Jr., 
who, in February, 1808, sold the outfit to D. 
B. Givler. 

Mr. Givler, shortly after taking charge of 
the paper, changed its name from the Du 
Page County Press to the Naperville Clarion, 
so that the town in which it was established 
would be represented in the title. In the 
course of time the old type was exchanged 
for new; the hand-press gave way to the cyl- 
inder; improved jobbers were purchased, and 
the entire apparatus of the original office 
supplanted by new and improved material, so 
that now it is safe to say there are few su- 
perior printing offices in any suburban town 
in this State. The Clarion is in every way 
worthy of liberal support, the length of time 
it has been successfully published being an 
assurance of its permanency and a fixed in- 
stitution of the town. — D. B. Givleb. 

NAPEBVILLE SCHOOLS. 

The first school ever taught here was in 
the autumn of 1831, Leister Peet being teach- 
er, and probably every child in the settle- 
ment, which then comprised also the Scoit 
settlement at the fork, were the pupils — 
twenty-two in number, full details of which 
have already been given in preceding pages. 

The Sauk war broke up this school, but 
after the return of the settlers from their 
temporary absence on account of the war, 
Mrs. Hines and Mr. Hiram Standish both 
taught in the same old log schoolhouse, built 
before the war on a rise of ground, about 
thirty rods west of Naper's log store. R. 
N. Murray says he graduated at this school. 
By the year 1835, the settlement had attained 
proportions sufficient to warrant the erection 
of a permanent frame building for school 
purposes, aud Joseph Naper circulated a sub- 
scription paper to raise the means to pay for 
it. Settlers had abundance of everything 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



235 



but money, but this was wanting in sufficient 
quantities to bring the enterprise to a suc- 
cessful result, and in this emergency some of 
the friends of the scheme contributed labor 
or materials which was just as good as money, 
for in those days when a public improvement 
was to be made, there was no private pecu- 
lation or friction or any subtle methods of 
depleting the public treasury out of special 
funds for special objects 

Col. Warren informs the writer that he 
was then hauling salt from Chicago, and, the 
subscription paper being presented to him, 
on his arrival with a load of it, he rolled off 
a barrel as his contribution to the desired ob- 
ject. Its value was then $Q. The building 
was erected the next year, 1836, and was put 
to immediate use; not for a school only, but 
the early Gospel was dispensed from the ros- 
trum in it designed for the pedagogue, and 
it was, moreover, honored with judicial er- 
mine, for here the Circuit Court held two or 
three sessions. Its location was near the 
present Congregational Church. 

For some cause not known to the writer, 
this schoolhouse was sold by the district, and 
the school had to depend on such rooms as 
were available in which to hold their ses- 
sions. This unsystematic way of conducting 
them was neither creditable to the educational 
enterprise of the town, nor profitable to the 
scholars, but ample amends in due time were 
made for this, what might, with no misnomer, 
be called a hiatus in Naperville schools, by 
erecting an academy building, which was in- 
corporated in 1851, where the higher branches 
of science were taught by competent teachers. 
Mr. N. F. Atkins was its first preceptor, who 
was succeeded the next year by C. W. Rich- 
mond, from the academy at Great Barriugton, 
Mass. Besides common branches of educa- 
tion, the classical course of the best Eastern 
academies were taught here, including, also, 



music, drawing and painting. The attend- 
ance was good, and the progress of the pupils 
all that could be desired. Up to 1863, this 
academy, together with the public schools 
and a select school, in which the higher 
branches were taught by Miss S. B. Skinner, 
fully answered the requirements of the place. 
But now the time had come when a public 
graded school was a necessity as an advance 
system of education within the means of every 
one who felt ambitious to pursue the higher 
branches of English education. No general 
law of the State had yet been passed for the 
organization of graded schools, which made 
it necessary to get a charter for one ere it 
could get its due proportion of the public 
funds for its support. In 1863, Messrs. Val- 
lette and Cody and R. N. Murray drew up 
the required instrument which was sent to the 
Legislature of the State, and received its le- 
galized authority to act. The incorporate 
act was known by the following style: The 
Directors of the Naperville Graded School. 
The school district had already bought the 
academy building, which had been erected in 
1851. J. L. Nichols was Principal in 1881 
-82, and W. Knickerbocker, C. Wise and Peter 
Thompson, Directors. Mr. Knickerbocker 
was succeeded, July 3, by Casper L. Dilley. 
Mr. Nichols having resigned for a professor - 
shij) in the Northwestern College, his place 
was supplied, in 1882, by Levi M. Umbach. 
The Principal, with four assistant teachers, 
gives instruction in botany, history, Latin, 
philosophy, geometry, algebra, physiology, 
chemistry, civil government and the usual fun- 
damental branches taught in normal schools. 
The school justifies the expectations of the 
parents and pupils, and is a model worthy of 
imitation. It enrolls 302 pupils froni a cen- 
sus enrollment of 572 children and youths in 
its district, which is No 7 in Naperville 
Township. 



23(3 



HISTORY OF Dl T PAGE COUNTY. 



FIRE DEPARTMENT. 

The Village Council, after the fire in July, 

1874, deemed it expedient to organize a fire 
department, and, in September, 1874, ordered 
the purchase of a hand- engine, hose cart and 
hose. The committee purchased one Dutton 
No. 3 hand-engine, one hose-cart and 700 
feet of two and a half inch rubber hose. 

Companies were organized to run and man- 
age the same. On the 2d day of January, 

1875, the Council passed an ordinance to 
govern the fire department, and purchased a 
hook and ladder truck, with twenty-four pails, 
in September, 3875, and 300 feet more hose. 
Total cost of apparatus, $2,800; fixing build- 
ing to store apparatus, $300; expenses for 
repairs and running the department, from 
September, 1874, to July, 1882, about $550; 
amount of property saved by reason of organ- 
ized fire department during that time about 
$20,000. 

The following-named citizens have served 
as Fire Marshal and assistant: 

Marshals — Willard Scott, Jr., two terms; 
B. B. Boecker, one and a half terms; J. J. 
Hunt, two terms; A. McS. S. Riddler, two 
terms. 

Assistant Marshals — B. B. Boecker, three 
terms; A. McS. S. Eiddler, M. Weismantel, 
M. B. Hasler, J. Egermann. 

The Joe Naper Engine Company No. 1 
was organized September 17, 1874. Number 
of men allowed, SO; number of men in com- 
pany (average), 35. 

Foreman — Daniel Garst; J. Egermann, 
two terms ; M. Weismantel, two terms ; 
Xavier Kreyder, two terms; Jacob Heim, two 
terms. 

Assistant Foremen — Nicholas Yack, five 
terms; Alois Schwartz; Joseph Yender, two 
terms. 

Second Assistant Foremen — R. W. Shel- 
don, Sebastian Baun, seven terms. 



Secretaries — W. Scott, Jr. ; M. Weisman- 
tel, two terms; B. Beidelman, two terms; C. 
Bast, three terms. 

Treasurers — Reuss, six terms; X. Krey- 
den, two terms. 

Naperville Hose Company No. 1 was organ- 
ized September 17, 1874. Number of men 
allowed, 20; average number of men in com- 
pany, 18. Officers of said company were as 
follows: 

Foremen — A. McS. S. Riddler, four terms; 
Peter Babst, Hoi Seiber; Martin Becker, two 
terms; Henry Seiber, Albert Yost. 

Assistant Foremen — Peter Nicholas, Peter 
Babst, Hoi Seiber, Samuel Ney, Martin 
Becker, S. S. Strouse, Charles Naper, George 
Ehrhardt, B. J. Slick. 

Secretaries — O. J. Wright, C. D. Kendig, 
S. S. Strouse, A. McS. S. Riddler. 

Treasurers — George Potter, Albert Yost, 
Hoi Seiber. 

Rescue Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 
was organized on the 29th day of September, 
1875. Number of men allowed, 20; average 
number of men in company, 17. Officered as 
follows: 

Foremen — Williarn Naper, two terms; V. 
A. Dieter, T. W. Saylor, Charles Boettger, 
Edward Stover, three terms. 

Assistant Foreman — V. A. Dieter, two 
terms; T. W. Saylor, Cbarles Boettger, Ed- 
ward Stover. William P. Wright, three 
terms. 

Secretaries — J. H. Alexander, two terms; 
J. H. Chew, M. D., three terms; T. W. Say- 
lor, Eli H. Ditzler, W. W. Wickel. 

Treasurer — M. B. Hastier, eight terms. 

A new company called the Joe Naper 
Engine Company was organized in May 
or June, 1881, and discharged in May, 
1882. John Ehrhardt, Foreman; John F. 
Strohecker, Assistant Foreman. — A. McS. S. 
Riddler. 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



237 



THE NAPERVILLE GUARDS. 

A company of State militia was organized 
at Naperville August 15, 1877, under the 
general military law of the State. Samuel 
W. Smith and William J. Laird, by direction 
of H. H. Hilliard. Adjutant General of the 
State, took the initiatory steps to form the 
company out of the abundant material at 
hand — the stalwart young men of Naper- 
ville. 

Mr. Smith was its Captain; Willard Scott, 
Jr., First Lieutenant, and William J. Laird, 
Second Lieutenant. Subsequently, Messrs. 
Smith and Scott having resigned, a new elec- 
tion was held, June 20, 1878, when William 
J. Laird was elected Captain; E. Ingals, 
First Lieutenant, and William P. Combs, 
Second Lieutenant. Mr. Ingals next having 
resigned, Mr. Combs was promoted to the 
office of First Lieutenant, and Charles F. 
HJggins from Sergeant to Second Lieutenant 
early in 1880. The succeeding July he died, 
much regretted by the members of the com- 
pany to which he belonged, and mourned by 
his many personal friends and relatives. 
Sergt. George Ehrhardt was then promoted 
to till his place, but was discharged, June 22, 
1882. The company now numbers sixty- 
nine men, all muscular and young, well armed 
with breech-loaders, peaceable as citizens, 
but formidable as foes whenever the State 
demands their service. They drill four times 
a year, preserving good order and good dis- 
cipline, as reported by the Adjutant Inspector 
of the State. 

SOCIETIES. 

Guttenburg Lodge, No. 331, I. 0. 0, F. - 

Was organized at Naperville October 9, 1800. 
Charter members : Charles Schultz. Martin 
Straube, Daniel Garst, Joseph Eggerman, 
Charles Boetiger, Jacob Hein, Xavier Kreyter, 
Simeon Schupp. The lodge had forty mem- 
bers at the end of its first year, since which 



time its meetings have been held once a week. 
Its present officers are : Fred Fochs, O. M. ; 
Adam Armbruster, U. M. ; Otto Siber, Schm; 
John Oestereich, Schr. 

Naperville Lodge. No. 81, I. O. 0. F.— 
Was organized October 17, 1851. The names 
of the charter members were James D. 
Wright, A. S. Sabin, William C. Mcintosh, 
Sol W. Sonendecker, S. O. Vaughn. It has 
been in successful operation ever since to the 
present time, meeting once a week, except for 
about three years during the war, at which 
time the greater portion of the members were 
in the field. Since peace was restored, the 
lodge resumed its meetings, which are now 
regularly held. Present officers : John Frost, 
N. G. ; Charles Hunt, V. G. ; A. McKillips, 
R. S. ; D. Strubler, Treasurer; W. Marvin, 
P. S. 

Euclid Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, No. 
13, was chartered October 3, 1851. The names 
of the charter members were Aylmer Keith, 
H. P. ; John Eddy, K. ; Harry T. Wilson, 
Scribe. Present H. P. : J. J. Hunt. 

Euclid Lodge, No. 65, A.. F. & A. M., was 
organized October 2, A. D. 184'J, under the 
dispensation of the Most Worshipful Master 
William Lavely, Grand Master of the Most 
Honorable Society of Free and Accepted 
Masons in the State of Illinois. Charter 
members: Lewis Ellsworth, John Kimball, 
Nathan Loring, C. C. Barns. Officers: Ayl- 
mer Keith, W. M.; Joseph Naper, Senior 
Warden: Nathan Allen, Junior Warden. 
Attested: William Mitchell, Grand Secre- 
tary; W. Lavely, Grand Muster; T. C. Ket- 
cham, S. G. W.; W. C. Tobbe, J. G. W. 
Present officers: J. B. Frost, W. M. ; S. A. 
Ballon, Senior Warden; \V. W. Wickel, Jun 
ior Warden; J. J. Hunt, Senior Deacon; J. 
Solfisberg, Junior Deacon; J. Horu, Treas- 
urer; C. P. Dorn, Secretary; S. Balliman, 
Ti ler. 



238 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



BANKING. 

Willard Scott, Sr., and his son Thaddeus 
opened a banking and exchange office, in con- 
nection with their general store, in 1854, 
and continued in said business until 1866. 
Thaddeus died in 1866, and W. Scott, Sr., 
retired for a short time. Willard Scott Jr., 
carried on the business with C. M. Castle 
from 1866 to 1870. Then Willard Scott, 
Sr. , again assumed the banking and exchange 
office (which was removed to another building 
and entirely disconnected from the store) 
with C. M. Castle until October 1, 1872. 
Then A. McS. S. Riddler was associated with 
him as Cashier until October 1, 1873, when 
Mr. Jonathan Royee entered the firm, and 
retired October 1, 1875, since which time Mr. 
Scott has continued in the business until the 
present time, with A. McS. S. Riddler as 
Cashier. During all these years they have 
had the confidence of the people, and not an 
obligation has been presented that was not 
paid promptly, nor have they ever had a 
check or draft protested. 

TILE AND BRICK MANUFACTURING. 

The Naperville Drain-Tile and Brick Fac- 
tory was established in 1871 by George Mar- 
tin. It started with two hand machines, 
there being but little demand for tile at that 
time. Its utility has since been sufficiently 
demonstrated and the demand for it has war- 
ranted the introduction of machinery pro- 
pelled by steam power to supply the increas- 
ing orders which come in for it from the 
country all around. Two steam tile and 
brick machines are now kept running, with a 
capacity of producing from eight to ten 
thousand linear feet of tile per day, varying 
in diameter from eight to fifteen inches. The 
style of the firm is now Martin & Vanoven. 

A quarry of magnesian limestone crops 
out to the surface on the southwestern bank 



of the river. It was first worked by George 
Martin, but is now worked by Joseph Sals- 
bury. The stone has been tested as to ex- 
posure to frost and atmospheric changes, and 
found to be equal in durability, if not super- 
ior, to any in the country. It is soft when 
quarried and hardens by exposure. The an- 
nual production of the quarry is from five to 
six hundred cords per annum. 

BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL REGISTER. 

Agricultural implement dealers — W. H. 
Hillegas & Co., J. J. Hunt, Andrew Ory, D. 
B. Hartronft. 

Attorneys — Hiram H. Cody, John H. Bat- 
ton, Jr., M. C. Dudley, H. H. Goodrich, 
John Haight. 

Bankers — Willard Scott & Co. 

Bakers — Joseph Bapst, C. A. Nadelhafer. 

Barbers — William McCauly. George 
Knoch, Wert Bros., Andrew Kreyder. 

Blacksmiths — Bauer Bros., Charles Hunt, 
Abraham Hartronft, Heim & Stoner, Norman 
Lent, Richard Swartz. Strausz & Getsch, 
Daniel Strubler, J. F. Stroheker, David 
Vance. 

Brewers — John Stenger. 

Butchers — William Hartronft. L. Halber- 
stadt, Becker & McCain. 

Boot and shoe dealers — Collins & Durran, 
W. R. Steward. 

Butter and cheese — Naperville has two 
butter and cheese factories. The oldest one 
is run by Mr. George H. Hunt. He came to 
Naperville in 1^77, and made butter and 
cheese in Mr. John Stenger's building, from 
1877 to 1880; then he bought the grounds 
and put up the factory he is now occupying. 
In 1881, he paid to his patrons about $50,000 
for milk, averaging $1.18 per 100 pounds. 
The other butter and cheese factory is carried 
on in Mr. John Stenger's building, by Messrs. 
Eggerman & Bauer. They started October 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



239 



1, 1881, and receive about 6,000 pounds of 
milk now per day. 

City Officers — President, Peter Thompson; 
Trustees., Valentine A. Dieter, Michael 
Schwartz. H. J. Durran, Louis Reiche; 
Treasurer, Oliver Stutenroth; Clerk, S. M. 
Skinner; City Marshal, William J. Laird; 
Police Magistrate, David B. Givler: City 
Weigher, Philip Beckman. 

Carriage-makers — F. A. Saylor, Joseph 
Hildenbrandt. William Shimp. 

Carpenters —Alfred Shafer, Mathias Stev- 
ens. Levi S. Shafer (proprietor of planing- 
mill). 

Carpet weavers — Nicholaus Fons. Jacob 
Stroheker. John Fuss. 

Cigar makers and dealers — Hiram Ebright, 
Henry Obermeyer, John Schloessler, Kline & 
Bard, Charles Schulz. 

County Judge — Robert N. Murray. 

Dentists — C. P. Dorn, L. Eberhardt. 

Druggists — H. C. Daniels, M. B. Powell, 
Strayer, Wickel & Co. 

Furniture dealers — Chas. Bapst, F. Long. 

General stores — Martin Brown, Ditzler & 
Hosier, H. H. Peasly, Willard Scott & Co. 

Gents' furnishing goods — Fred Kaylor. 

Grocers — Joseph Bapst, Valentine Dieter, 
Saul Drissler, John Drissler, John Marlin, 
David Frost, Wm. Latshaw, Mrs. Linderman. 

Grain and coal dealers — B. B. Boecker, 
Elias Musselman. 

Hardware dealers — J. J. Hunt, W. H. 
Hillegas & Co., John Pfister, Sherer & Yost. 

Harness -makers — John Herbert, R. H. 
Wagner, Philip Beckman (dealer in hides 
and leather). 

Hotels — American House, B. F. Russell, 
proprietor; Pre-emption House, Jefferson 
Bush, proprietor; Washington House, Jacob 
Keller, proprietor. 

Jewelers — M. Weismantel, Collins & Dur- 
ran. 



Justices of the Peace — David B. Givler, 
W. R. Steward, J. Haight, E. Musselman. 

Livery stable keepers — B. F. Russell, 
George Strubler. 

Lumber dealers— E. F. Hartronft, Michael 
Schwartz. 

Marble works — Charles H. Kayler. 

Merchant tailors — Theodore German, 
George Reuss. 

Milliners— Mrs. Butler, Mrs. Strebel, Mrs. 
Scott, Mrs. Blake. 

Newspaper — Naperville Clarion, David B. 
Givler, proprietor. 

Notaries public — John H. Batten, Jr., M. 
C. Dudley, Jasper L. Dille, Arthur Cody, 
H. H. Goodrich, J. J. Hunt, J. M. Vallette. 

Nursery proprietors — Lewis Ellsworth, 
Ernst Von Oven. 

Painters — Walter Good, Fred Miller, Mar- 
tin Straube. 

Photographers — A. C. Kendig, L. Luplau. 

Physicians — Bell & Nauman, H. C. Dan- 
iels, M. R. Cullison, A. L. Freund, T. J. 
Sprague, S. S. Stayer. 

Postmaster — Philip Strubler. 

Real estate agent — A. McS. S. Riddler. 

Restaurants — Ed Clemens, T. W. Saylor. 

Saloon keei^ers — -Adam Conrad, Thomas 
Costello, J. Eggerman, Fred Fuchs, Jacob 
Keller, Samuel Kreyder, John Ruchty, Xavier 
Swein, O. A. Siebert, John Krieger. 

Shoemakers — John Congrave, Xavier 
Compte, George Ehrhardt & Bro., John 
Ehrhardt & Co., George Friess, Martin, Fest, 
Martin Scherff, Jacob Zimmerman. 

Stone Quarries — Jacob Solfisberg, Mel- 
chior Braun, Harry Norbury. 

Tile and brick works — Martin & Von Oven. 

Toys and notions — Mrs. Lindeman. 

Undertakers — Charles Bapst, Fred Long, 
Philip Orcutt. 

Wagon-makers — A. Armbruster, Ferdinand 
Mueller. 



240 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



CHAPTER XI. 



LISLE TOWNSHIP— THE FIRST SETTLER— HIS HARDIHOOD— THANKSGIVING— A FEMALE POW-WOW 
—THE OLD GRIST-MILL— THE CHRONIC PIONEER— HIS GENEROSITY. 



AS early as 1834, as the autumn hunter 
crept along the fringe of the groves that 
grew in patches on the east side of the East 
Branch of the Du Page River, just above 
the fork, if of a contemplative mind, he 
could hardly help forgetting his search for 
game to gaze on and admire the scene. An 
even surface, graduating upward from the 
stream, unbroken except in a few places by a 
spring of living water or the channel of a 
rivulet, dry, alluvial and fertile. Here were 
patches of oak, hickory, black walnut and 
other trees unscarred by the woodman's axe, 
and here was a wealth in the soil waiting the 
touch of the plow to yield " thirty, sixty or an 
hundred fold." 

All this had been abandoned by a people 
who knew not how to utilize it, and here it lay 
spread out before the first one who chose to 
take it for a consideration so small that it 
might be counted as nothing. He passes on — 
the squirrels are busy at their nut harvest, the 
wild ducks probe the bottom of the river with 
their flat bills, the prairie chickens whirl past 
him through the air, the sand-hill cranes are 
seen in flocks at a long distance, and the deer 
startle from the thickets of hazel brush before 
his approach. Far beyond all these he sees a 
new sight as he pursues his trackless way. 
There is a log cabin, men and women, children 
hop-skipping around as if a section of New 
England had been cut out and planted here as 
an experiment to see if it would grow. He 
approaches nearer and he hears the convivial 
shouts of the youngsters as they chase each 
other around. Surfeited with — with — with — 



Thanksgiving turkey ? Yes, why not ! It's 
Deacon Pomeroy Goodrich's, and hadn't he a 
right among other Yankee notions he brought 
from New Hampshire to bring the institution 
of Thanksgiving with him ? And who could 
do it with more dignity than a deacon? Besides, 
it was a kind of a relief to throw off the 
deacon at least once in a while, and have a 
good jovial time, and anybody who knew 
Deacon Goodrich knew that he could put it on 
again at a minute's notice if it was necessary to 
apply the brakes to those within his moral at- 
mosphere at least by example. He kept up this 
anniversary as the years rolled along, and kin- 
dred neighbors partook in his hospitalities. He 
planted the institutions of New England here 
first, and in his labor he was soon reinforced 
by detachment after detachment from the 
parent stem, among whom was Henry Good- 
rich, his brother. But before we proceed 
farther in this direction, let us first return to 
the actual settler who drove the first stake into 
the soil of what is now Lisle, whose name was 
Bailey Hobson. 

This intrepid pioneer, in May, 1830, left his 
home in Orange County, Ind., on horseback, 
bound for the prairie country in Illinois, of 
which he had heard reports. He wended his 
way through the forest path in an almost west- 
erly course, till Fort Clark was reached, the 
original French name of which was Opa. It 
is now Peoria. At the time of Mr. Hobson's 
arrival at the place, it was a county seat, where 
courts were held. From thence he bent his 
course northeastwardly to Halderman's Grove, 
where a small settlement had been begun. Next, 



LISLE TOWNSHIP. 



241 



after taking a look at the Fox River country, 
he turned away from it, and made a claim a 
few miles from the village of the Pottawato- 
mies, which would be south of the present site 
of Aurora. He then returned to his home by 
the way he had come, reaching his destination 
early in July. He had passed many nights in 
his blanket on the ground, his faithful horse 
hobbled and turned out to browse ; but this 
was mere pastime to the trials in store for him. 
On the 1st of September following, everything 
was in readiness, and he started with his family 
for the prairie home that he had laid claim to. 
His means of travel was an ox team hitched 
to a lumber wagon, which by day was a vehicle 
of locomotion, and at night a domicile for his 
family, consisting of three young children, one 
of whom was a baby. Besides these was a 
hired man — Mr. L. Stewart. After twenty-one 
days of toiling through the wilderness path, 
they reached Halderman's Grove, near where 
Mr. Hobson had made a claim a few weeks be- 
fore. Next a cabin was to be built for shelter 
during the ensuing winter. Hay was to be cut 
for his cattle, of which Mr. Hobson had thir- 
teen head, besides a horse, the same on whose 
back Mrs. Hobson had crossed several rivers 
on the way, with her babe in her arms. Mr. 
Hobson, with the aid of Mr. Stewart, after ac- 
complishing all this, broke a few acres of prai- 
rie and sowed winter wheat in it, to provide 
food for the ensuing year. But his supplies for 
the winter were getting low, and something 
must be done immediately to replenish them. 
There were sparse settlements to the east, and 
Mr. Hobson started for them, and after many 
wanderings found some pork for sale. This he 
engaged, and returned to his family to get his 
ox-team to transport it. He accordingly again 
started on this mission, but after a few days' 
absence the snow fell to such a depth that it 
was impossible to travel, and after many vain 
attempts to reach home with his team, he finally, 
after nineteen days' absence, made the tour on 



foot, but not without a strain of muscle that 
would have overtaxed the powers even of the 
average pioneer, with all his hardihood. At 
home again, but not to rest, for there was noth- 
ing there to winter on but some dry corn, and 
a scanty supply of that. In this emergency, 
he again started, through the deep snows, for 
the pork he had bought, taking Mr. Stewart 
with him. Before leaving, a good supply of 
fuel was provided and brought into the house. 
This done, the two men took their departure. 
Two days after they had left, another snow- 
storm came, more terrific than the first. The 
cattle dared not venture from the grove, except 
one cow, who naturally sought protection from 
her friendly mistress, Mrs. Hobson, and coming 
to her door pressed to come in. This could 
not be allowed, and the poor brute laid down 
in the snow, and died in a short time on the 
spot. Mrs. Hobson covered her deep with snow, 
lest she should bait the wolves to the place. 
The spring was a few rods from the house, but 
to this all egress was cut off. and Mrs. Hobson 
melted snow for water, boiled her corn, and ate 
the untempting food, with her little ones, in 
solitude, day after day, till the return of her 
husband. After the lapse of fourteen days, he 
came with relief. He had passed through dan- 
gers and trials that had well nigh reached the 
limits of human endurance, in his desperate 
but vain attempts to couteud against the forces 
of nature, for the protection of his family. 

We have now followed the adventures of this 
heroic pioneer to where they were begun in a 
previous chapter, which tells of his coming to 
Du Page County, and here we will leave him 
to note the progress of events. 

The arrival of Deacon Goodrich at the 
plate was November 6, 1832. Bailey Hobson 
was his nearest neighbor, but across the pres- 
ent line of Will County was the Scott Settle- 
ment, the nearest resident of which was Harry 
Boardman, at whose home Mr. Goodrich and 
family boarded the ensuing; winter after their 



242 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



arrival. Thoron Parsons had just come to the 
place and made claims to land where Mr. 
Goodrich now lives, which he relinqished 
gratis to him, as he had seen other lands that 
suited him better, to which he immediately laid 
claim after having relinquished his first one. 

In June, 1833, Luther and James C. Hatch 
came to the present site of Lisle Station and 
made claims. James C. is still living on the 
same at the present time, where he is enjoying 
a green old age. They were from Cheshire 
County, X. H. Sherman King had preceded 
them a few months, and was then living on his 
claim near by. Benjamin Tupper and Mr. 
Madison came the same year. Mr. Stout, from 
Tennessee, was also here with his family. He 
belonged to that race of chronic pioneers who 
live and thrive best on the broad face of nature 
" untarnished " to them by progressive society 
with its infinitude of wants and refinements. 
The limit of the Stouts' ambition was a log 
cabin to live in, corn bread to eat and home- 
spun clothes to wear. Of his worldly goods, 
he was generous, and his heart was full of love 
for mankind, and everybody respected him for 
his sterling integrity as well as his generosity ; 
but as the means of a better style of living in- 
creased among the settlers, and wants kept 
pace with these accumulating means, Mr. Stout 
saw himself a kind of speckled bird of the 
flock, and took his leave pleasantly and uncom- 
plainingly for a newer country, where conditions 
were on his plane. Allusion has already been 
made to him in a chapter of pioneer history, 
with a feeling more kind even than charity, for 
the writer does not forget the hospitalities of 
just such people extended to himself while in 
his teens on the frontier. 

In 1834, A. D. Chatfield and Thomas Gates 
came to the place. The former still lives at 
Lisle Station where he first settled. 

The Indians frequently visited these early 
settlers in a friendly spirit, but sometimes 
made themselves offensive through their total 



ignorance of the proprieties of civilized life. 
In the spring of 1834, when the wet ground, as 
well as the damp winds, made camping uncom- 
fortable, a squad of squaws came to Mr. Good- 
rich's door just at night. They did not ask 
permission to stay, but planted themselves on 
the floor of his house before the comfortable 
fire and seemed quite contented. Mr. Good- 
rich could not turn the wretches out in the cold, 
and he and his wife went to bed, but not to 
sleep, for, says Mr. Goodrich, " they kept up 
such a pow-wowing all night as to set sleep at 
defiance." 

In 1834, a log schoolhouse was built, by 
subscription, near where Lisle Station now is. 
It, like many others of its kind, was also used 
for a church, and Rev. N. Catlin Clark, a Con- 
gregationalist minister, preached in it. Rev. 
Jeremiah Porter, that venerable old pioneer 
preacher who is still living, also preached occa- 
sionally at the place. Soon afterward, a church 
was built one and one-half miles east of the 
present station, in which services were held by 
Rev. Orange Lyman. But subsequently this 
church was sold to the Lutherans, about the 
time the railroad was laid out, who moved it 
half a mile south of where it first stood. Serv- 
ices were then held in a new schoolhouse, built 
in 1837, till the Congregationalists built the 
large church that now stands at the Station. 

On March 14, 1835, Daniel M. Green and 
Venelia, his wife, came to Section 26, with their 
own team, from Ogden, Monroe Co., N. Y. 
They arrived at the house of Mr. Strong, a 
resident of the place, at midnight. The wolves 
had followed them along the lonesome prairie 
for the last three hours of their ride, and kept 
up a yelping on either side, as if they were 
hungry for their blood. 

Besides those already mentioned, Mr. Green 
reports the following residents at the place on 
the arrival of himself and family : Jeduthan 
Hatch, John Thompson, from New Hampshire ; 
John Graves, who kept tavern, and now lives 




or 



J'ry^d^^k Qri 



LISLE TOWNSHIP. 



245 



in Lisle ; Martin and Stephen Pierce ; Thomas 
Gates, from Ohio ; George and Charles Parmely, 
from Vermont ; John Dudley, from Ogden, N. 
Y. ; Russell Webster; Isaac Clark; Huchins 
Crocker — a pretty old man, sociable when 
he had plenty of tobacco, but in the slough 
of despond without it ; Harmon and James 
Carman, from New York, and Amasa Moore, 
whose wife was sister to Miss Daphine P. 
Ball, the first schoolmistress at the place. 
She taught in a small log cabin built by 
Deacon Goodrich near his own house, and 
was paid by subscription from the neigh- 
bors who patronized it, which meant everybody 
near by. She subsequently taught in Naper 
ville. and to her are many men and women, 
now in their maturity, indebted for their first 
lessons, not only in scholastic science, but in 
those courtesies which grace the social circle. 
She is now the wife of Mr. Skinner, of Naper- 
ville. 

In 1836, a Sunday school was established at 
the house of Mr. Green — Deacon Goodrich. 
Superintendent. 

Among others who came to the place that 
year was Thomas Jellies, from England. The 
next year, he built a sehoolhouse at what is 
now the village of Lisle, the best one in the 
country at that time, and the same already 
alluded to as a place of worship, as well as for 
a school. 

The very first preaching in what is now Lisle 
was b} - Rev. Isaac Scarritt, who had settled in 
the Scott settlement. It was of the Methodist 
itinerant kind ; but Rev. C. Clark, already al- 
luded to, a Congregationalist, soon after began 
to preach at his own house, on the West Fork 
of the Du Page, about a mile below Hobson's 
Mill. 

This old mill was far-famed, and thither came 
people to it like pilgrims to Mecca, except that 
they did not bow down before it on bended 



knees. There was no mill north of it, not even 
at Galena, which was then a good-sized town, 
but obtained their meal and flour from St. 
Louis, and Chicago received such supplies 
from Detroit ; but the whole intervening inte- 
rior had to pound their corn in mortars, grind 
it in a coffee mill or bring it to Hobson's Mill. 
Mr. Daniel Green ran the mill on shares dur- 
ing the years 1836 and 1837, and the cash 
receipts for meal sold were over $4,000 per 
annum. Mr. Hobson could neither read nor 
figure, but was good at mental reckoning. No 
accounts were kept, not even a scratch to prove 
the terms of their contract. There were the 
receipts in cash, which would show for them- 
selves, and it was as easy to divide them as to 
divide a pint of peas. Mr. Hobsou took three 
parts, Mr. Green one. No expense for clerk 
hire, paper, pens or ink. Subsequently, when 
Mr. Green became County Sheriff, Mr. Hobson, 
his quondam friend, was the first to volunteer 
to sign his bail bond, and it surprised the court 
to see how prettily he wrote his name. 

The name of Lisle was suggested by A. B. 
Chatfield. It has nine schoolhouses and 576 
persons between the ages of six and twenty- 
one. 

The village of Lisle is a station on the C, 
B. & Q. R R., in the midst of a region not sur- 
passed in fertility in the county. A combina- 
tion of circumstances as to land -ownership 
and other causes have thus far stood in the 
way of its growth up to the present time. 
There is more milk shipped from this than any 
other station on the road, and the place is li- 
able at any time to rally and become a thriving 
village. Robert Dixon keeps a general store 
here, J. R. McMillen is Station Agent and 
Postmaster and Hart, Nagle & Long carry on 
the blacksmith and wagon-making business. 

The elevation of the railroad track at the 
place is 115 feet above Lake Michigan. 



246 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



CHAPTER XII. 



YORK TOWNSHIP — ORIGIN OF ITS NAME — ITS EARLY SETTLERS — THE DESPLAINES BRIDGED- 
SUNDAY SERVICE ON SLAB SEATS— THE PIONEER SCHOOL MISTRESS— THE WIDOWER'S 
CABIN— PRAYING MATCHES— SUICIDE— BURSTING FORTH OF A SPRING— 
ELMHURST— GERMAN EVANGELICAL SEMINARY— LOMBARD. 



IT took its name from the State of New 
York because its first settlers came from 
there and planted its institutions in the new 
prairie soil of the land of their adoption, 
there to live and grow, which expectation has 
been verified, perhaps, sooner than was ex- 
pected, for they have lived to see villages and 
railroads, schools and churches and farms with 
luxurious houses on them and all the machin- 
ery of old States in working order. 

Elisha Fish was the first. He came in the 
spring of 1833, and settled in what is now Sec- 
tion 26. 

In the spring of 1834, Winslow Churchill, 
Jr., settled where Lombard now is. 

Jesse Atwater and John Talmadge came in 
1834, and it is probable that some other set- 
tlers came in during the same year, among 
whom were German settlers, spoken of under 
the head of Addison. Of these the Graue 
family who settled around Graue's Grove, close 
to the line of Addison, might be mentioned. 
In 1835, Jacob W. Fuller came to this settle- 
ment from Broome County, N. Y., and settled 
on what is now Section 27. He had five sons 
— Benjamin, the oldest, Daniel, the third son, 
and Morell and Lewis; the two youngest came 
with him. The next year, 1836, George, the 
second son of Mr. Fuller, came and settled on 
Section 27, where he still lives. The youngest 
brothers, Morell and Lewis, also now live in 
York. Nicholas Torode, Sr., and Philander 
Torode came and settled in Section 24 in 1835, 
and John Bolander came about the same time, 



and settled a few miles to the north of them. 
Henry Reider came the same year. 

The next year, Nicholas Torode, Jr., Peter 
R., C. W. and David H. Torode, came to the 
place, all these from Mount Vernon, Ohio, and, 
Oriente Grant, from the Eastern States. Luther 
Morton, David Talmadge, Edward Eklredge 
and Sherman King, all came in 1836. The lat- 
ter built a saw-mill the next year in the south 
part of the present town, on Salt Creek. The 
same year (1837), a settlement was begun at 
what is now Elmhurst, by the arrival of John 
Glos, Sr., with two other German families, the 
fathers of whom had married his daughters. 
His son, John Gloss, Jr., who is now a resident 
of St. Charles, brought them to the place. 

About this time, the farmers had begun to 
raise something to sell. Chicago was their 
only market, and, insignificant as it then ap- 
peared, there were wholesale dealers there in 
wheat, pork, hides and every substantial kind 
of produce, and how to make the roads toler- 
able to transport them thither was the problem 
In this direction, the first thing to be done was 
to build a bridge over the Desplaines River, 
which was promptly done by the united efforts 
of the settlers of York and Milton. It was 
situated about where the present bridge at 
Maywood now is ; and, let it not be forgotten 
that the early settlers of Du Page Count}- had 
the honor of first bridging this turbulent stream. 

The settlement thus begun, the next thing 
was to have preaching on Sundays. Without 
this consolation, their minds might wander, and 



YORK TOWNSHIP. 



247 



their thoughts vanish into mystery, like their 
vision, as they looked over the lonesome re- 
moteness of the green below, and the blue above 
losing themselves in each other's embrace in 
the dim distance of the prairies ! Besides, the 
Sunday exercises would help to keep the young 
hearts of the boys and girls from getting home- 
sick in thinking of youthful associations left 
behind ! The old folks had less need for diver- 
sion, for they had family cares ; but the young 
were looking forward to them witli pleasing 
anticipations and felt the need of instruction. 

The Methodists appear to have understood 
this principle, and were generally the first to 
supply the demand. To this end, Rev. David 
Colson, an itinerant of this circuit, visited the 
place, and was invited to preach at the house 
of John Talmadge. The date of his first advent 
has not been preserved ; but it must have been 
as late or later than 1837, as the seats provided 
for the occasion were made of slabs sawed at 
Mr. King's mill, just spoken of. 

A schoolhouse was built in 1839, which was 
considered as essential a piece of machinery 
as the church, when everything has to be built 
new, and the timber taken from the stumps. 
Both go hand in hand, at least they did in the 
early day, for the schoolhouse then was always 
used on Sunday for a church, and this was, there- 
by affording relief to the then scanty private 
houses, where meetings were held. Miss C. 
Haines taught school in this house, but she was 
not the first schoolma'am in the place. Miss 
Mary Fuller has that distinction. Her school 
was established in a private house, made vacant 
by the suicide of an eccentric man named Elias 
Brown. Yes, even in that primitive day there 
was one moody sentimentalist wrought up to 
the frenzy of self-destruction. He had come 
to the place alone, made a claim and built a 
comfortable cabin to receive his wife and chil- 
dren, who were to follow as soon as suitable 
preparation had been made to secure a home 
for them. 



Mr. Brown was a good worker and a zealous 
man in pra3 - er meetings. Often held them at 
his lonesome cabin, which, though it lacked the 
magic touch of the female hand to give it an 
air of comfort, was nevertheless visited by the 
neighbors in goodly numbers to hear Mr. 
Brown's unctious prayers, as well as those of 
others. Brown called these meetings praying 
matches. Finally his face of nonchalance was 
missed in the neighborhood, and on going to 
his cabin to see what was the matter, he was 
found dead with the cup of laudanum on the 
table, from which he had taken the fatal 
draught to relieve himself from some incubus 
that had laid across his path, intolerable to him- 
self, but unknown to the world. His sons soon 
came to settle his small estate and returned. 
The more common diseases that afflict new set- 
tlements are fevers and chills, and in justice 
to this country it is fair to assume that 
the disease or the cause of it which terminated 
fatally in Mr. Brown's case was contracted in 
the East, through some social grievance not 
common to pioneer settlements. 

A small portion of Babcoek's Grove lies in 
York, around which the Churchills and the Bab- 
cocks had settled in 1833 and 1834, but, from 
the most authentic accounts, their claims were 
almost, if not entirely, made within the present 
limits of Milton Township, and their history 
has been given under that head. 

In the spring of 1861, a copious spring of 
water burst out of the ground, with a concus- 
sion that made the ground tremble. It was 
near the house of Robert Reed. The spring 
empties into Salt Creek, about three miles 
above Mr. Graues' grist-mill. 

Walker's Grove, in the southwest part of 
York, occupies land enough to make a full 
section. John Walker settled here in 1835. 

The large grove in the southeast part of 
York, with one on its east line, a little to the 
north of it, would make at least four sections 
of land, which would, with the other groves, 



248 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



give one-sixth as the proportion of prairie to 
the timber in York. 

Sections 25, 35, 36 and the diagonal halves 
of Sections 24, 26 and 34 lie within the limits 
of the Indian boundary lines, and were sur- 
veyed at an early date and brought into market 
in June, 1835. 

It is impossible to give the dates of the early 
roads of the country. Most of them had their 
origin in a trail that marked the prairie by 
travel between the most prominent points 
known at the time. 

According to a map of Cook and Du Page 
Counties, drawn by James H. Rees, of Chicago, 
in 1850, a road passed through this township 
leading from Chicago to St. Charles ; another 
from a steam mill where May wood, on the Des- 
plaines, now is, to Warreuville, on the West Fork 
of the Du Page ; another from the house of H. 
Fischer, on Section 35, in Addison, to the saw- 
mill on Salt Creek, in Section 36, thence to 
Brush Hill ; and a short one leading from the 
intersection of the St. Charles road with Salt 
Creek down the stream to the Warreuville road, 
at the junction with which Eldridge Post Office 
is put down, Bingham's tavern on the St. 
Charles road, on Section 12, and Cottage Hill 
and Bates, on Section 2. These are all the 
roads and names on Mr. Rees' map of 1 850. 

The surface of the township is sufficiently 
rolling for good drainage, but not as uneven as 
some other townships in the county. 

The dairy business is a prominent interest in 
the township, but the raising of vegetables, es- 
pecially potatoes, for the Chicago market, is an 
increasing interest. 

York has nine school districts and 875 per- 
sons between the ages of six and twenty-one ; 
$23 is reported as the value of her school li- 
braries. 

The old saw-mill on Salt Creek was burnt 
down in 1848, and in 1852 a grist-mill was 
built in its place by Fred Graue, or Gray (to 
anglicize it), and W. Arche. It has recently 



been remodeled by Mr. Gray by putting in a 
Jonathan mill, with a capacity of 125 barrels 
superfine flour per day. It runs by steam and 
water power both. Mr. Gray was one of the 
pioneer settlers of Addison, who came to the 
place in 1834. He has been, for the sake of 
convenience, compelled, though reluctantly, to 
change his name from its pure German (Graue) 
to Gray, on account of the faltering manner 
with which Americans write or attempt to 
spell it. 

DRAIN TILE AND BRICK WORKS. 

This establishment, owned by William Ham- 
merschmit, is situated a mile south of Lom- 
bard. It employs from ten to fifteen men, and 
turns out from 60,000 to 70,000 feet of from 
two to ten inches tile per month, with ma- 
chine capacity for turning out from 125,000 to 
150,000 feet per month. Capital invested) 
$11,000. The steam power is furnished by a 
25-horse-power engine. 

ELMHURST. 

This village or rather tavern stand, as it fii'9t 
was, went by the name of Hill Cottage, a mis- 
nomer one would say who came from a mount- 
ainous or even a hill}' region, yet it was really 
a hill compared to any intervening lands be- 
tween it and Chicago, being 106 feet above the 
lake, the ground graduating upward all the 
way till the place is reached. 

Mr. J. L. Hovey came from Painesville, Ohio, 
here and opened a taven in 1843. His place 
soon presented attractions to the lonesome 
inhabitants of the prairie around in those 
days, and a request was made that he should 
petition for a post office at his tavern stand, 
which soon became the nucleus of a village. 

John Wentworth then represented the dis- 
trict in Congress, and to him the petition wa9 
sent. The Postmaster General objected to the 
name on the ground that already many names 
of post offices began with hill, and suggested a 
transposition of the name, making it Cottage 



YORK TOWNSHIP. 



249 



Hill instead of Hill Cottage. This satisfied 
the petitioners, and the village was " baptized " 
accordingly. Not long afterward, Dedrick 
Mong also opened a tavern, and soon afterward 
a general store, the first ever established at 
the place. It stood where the store now occu- 
pied by Henry A. Glos stands. 

The Chicago & North-Western Railroad came 
through the place in 1849, and Mr. Mong was 
emploj'ed b} T the company to tend the station. 

The place now began to increase in numbers, 
and another store was opened by Gerry Bates 
on the spot now occupied by the post office. 
Soon after this, wealthy men came from Chi- 
cago, and the building of those palatial resi- 
dences, for which the place is remarkable, was 
begun. These beautiful homes are now shadowed 
by an artificial forest of elm, maple, pine, 
cedar and other trees, surrounded by ramparts 
of arbor-vitse hedges, trimmed with linear pre- 
cision, and during the sultry days of midsum- 
mer these tree-clad recesses are as inviting as 
they are ornate. 

They are also glad retreats during the nip- 
ping blasts of winter, toning down its severity 
and taking off its keen edge. But their crown- 
ing glory is at flood-tide during the full moons 
of autumn, when the glitter of her rays mottles 
the ground with radiance beneath the foliage of 
the trees. These suburban delights cannot be 
purchased at any price in large cities, and the 
wonder is that more do not embrace the first 
opportunity to secure them. 

The railroad company named their station at 
the place after the name of the post office — 
Cottage Hill, but this was changed to Elm- 
hurst, its present name, in 1869. 

The place has a. good public school where 
both German and English are taught, but no 
pupil receives instruction in German till first 
taught to read and write English. Algebra and 
other high branches of scholastic education are 
also taught, besides the common routine of the 
institution. 



The town was platted May 25, 1854, by 
Anson Bates, situated on the east half of the 
northeast quarter of Section 2, Town 39, Range 
11. Its elevation above Lake Michigan is 106 
feet. 

COLLEGE AT ELMHURST. 

This institution is called the Elmhurst 
Troseminar of the German Evangelical Synod 
of North America. It was established by the 
German Evangelical Synod of the Northwest 
in 1869, and two years later was transferred to 
the Synod of North America upon the union of 
the two Synods in 1871. 

The Troseminar is a preparatory school for 
the Theological Seminary of Missouri, and, be- 
sides preparing theological students for said 
institute, it fits teachers for parochial schools 
of the denomination, and admits a limited 
number of pupils to a selected course. 

When the school was founded in 1869. the 
instructors and twelve pupils occupied the resi- 
dence which was on the property at the time of 
purchase. Two years later, a brick building 
was erected, 75x40, and three stories high. The 
number of pupils was increased threefold, and 
the growth of the institution was so rapid that 
five 3 - ears afterward it was found necessary to 
build again. A handsome structure, costing 
$25,000 was then built, which proved no more 
than sufficient to contain the increased number 
that sought admittance, and since then the 
growth of the school has iucreased steadily. 

About 130 pupils can be accommodated, and 
all the modern conveniences known to the best 
architects have been adopted in the construc- 
tion of the recitation, study rooms and dormi- 
tories, and the methods of heating, lighting and 
ventilation were carefullly considered. 

In addition to the theological studies, there 
are a classical course and complete courses in 
the German and English languages. Music is 
not neglected ; all are trained in vocal music, 
and the theological students, as well as those 
who are preparing to teach, are taught to play 



250 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



on the organ and piano ; the teacher pupils, in 
addition, are instructed in playing the violin. 

The grounds cover about thirty acres, twenty 
acres of which are devoted to a garden, where 
the students find healthful and useful employ- 
ment. Except the cooking and laundry work, 
all the labor is performed by the pupils, who 
are thereby kept from idleness and mischief. 

The School Board consists of a sub-commit- 
tee called Overseers, who report to the Direct- 
ors, a committee who are responsible to the 
Synod. The school has no endowment, depend- 
ing mainly on free-will offerings for mainte- 
nance. 

The Inspector, or President, in addition to 
the usual duties of such an office, exercises a 
general supervision over all the interests of the 
institution, for which he is personally responsi- 
ble. The present Inspector, Rev. P. Goebel, 
succeeded the late Rev. Philipp Meusch in 
1880. The remaining members of the Faculty 
are : J. Lueder, Professor of Latin, Greek and 
History ; W. J. A. Hogan, Professor in charge 
of the English Department ; H. Brodt, Profes- ! 
sor of German and Pedagogy ; F. Berchtold, 
Professor of Mathematics, Chemistry and 
Physics ; G. Rosche, Professor of Music— J. 
Lueder. 

st. peter's church. 

This belongs to the German Evangelical 
Synod of North America in Elmhurst, and was 
founded .May 21, 1870. At this time the num- 
ber of pupils in the college had increased to 
an extent sufficient to warrant the building of 
a church, to enlarge the sphere of its useful- 
ness and turn its teachings in the minds of its 
pupils in a proper direction. The first mem- 
bers and founders of this church were those 
who were residents of Elmhurst but had previ- 
ously attended Immanuel Church at Addison. 
During the first year of its existence, the profes- 
sors in the college acted as pastors. Rev. Chris- 
tian Beck was the first ordained pastor, holding 
the position from April till October, 1877. Rev. 



Frederick Boeber succeeded him till March, 
1882, when Rev. Emil Keuchen, the present 
pastor took the charge. A parsonage and 
schoolhouse has been built adjoining the church, 
and a parochial school is taught under its pat- 
ronage. Fifty-four families constitute its mem- 
bership, the younger children of whom attend 
the school. 

BUSINESS REGISTER OP ELMHURST. 

Lumber, coal, grain, flour and feed, etc. 
Brownell & Strange. 

Diy goods and groceries (general store), 
Henry L. Glos, Charles Most, August Grave. 

Hardware and agricultural implements, 
Adam S. Glos. 

Hardware, stoves and tin shop, William 
Most, Carl Bauer. 

Blacksmiths and wagon-makers, Louis Bal- 
geman and Louis Rakow; William Geise, 
blacksmith; Henry Mueller, wagon-maker. 

Elmhurst Manufacturing Company, manu- 
facturer of patent spoke driver and wagon 
fixtures. 

Elmhurst Creameiy, Arthur Robinson, les- 
see. 

Harness-maker and saddler, Peter A. Wolf. 

Boots and shoes and shoe-maker, Nick 
Peter; D. Benjamin Miche, shoe-maker. 

Butchers, Rudolph Kraemer, Edward Dul- 
berg. 

Tailors, John Barge, Henry Gehrke, Albert 
T. Schultz. 

Painters and paper hangers, Jacob Witten- 
burg, Frank Blau. Julius Heegard. 

Carpenters and joiners, Ernst Balgemann 

Henry Battermann, William Hauabeth, 

Baker, Arthur Silvers, Hermann Warnecke, 
Hermann Conrad, John Halm. 

Masons, Henry Boettcher, Henry Morwitzei', 
William Weigrafe. 

Hotel and saloon, William Ohlerich. 

Saloons, Christian Blievernicht, Franz Boed- 
er, Christian Bell. 



YORK TOWNSHIP. 



251 



Methodist Episcopal, Rev. J. A. Potter. 

Evangelical Lutheran, Rev. E. Kenchen. 

Roman Catholic, Rev. C. J. Neiderberger. 

Physicians and surgeons, F. J. T. Fischer, 
George F. Heidemann. 

Postmaster, Jacob Glos. 

Chicago & Northwestern Railway and Ameri- 
can Express, Albert S. Brownell, Agent. 

VILLAGE GOVERNMENT. 

Trustees, Henry L. Glos, George Sawin, Chris- 
tian Blievernicht, Peter A Wolf, Ernst Balge- 
mann, Henry Hohman, Sr. 

President, Henry L. Glos. 

Clerk, William H. Litchfield. 

Treasurer, George F. Heidemann. 

Street Commissioner, Henry C. Holman. 

EVANGELICAL SEMINARY AT ELMHURST, ILL. 

President, Rev. Peter Goebel. 
Professor, Rev. John Lueder. 
Professor of English, W. J. H. Hogan. 
Professor of Music, George F. Rosche. 
Teachers, H. Brodt, Fred Berchtold. 

CHURCHES. 

Trinity Church. — This is located at York 
Center, and was organized in 1868, when the 
church was built. It was first a private school 
— a branch of the Addison congregation. 

Rev. Theodore Martens was the first pastor, 
who was succeeded, in 1871, by Rev. C. A. T. 
Selle, Professor in the Addison Seminary, till 
1872, when Rev. G. T. H. Gotsch became pastor, 
who holds the position to the present time. 
Sixty families are connected with this church. 
It has a parish school, numbering about fifty 
schi liars ; is connected with the church, in which 
German and English are taught. 

The York Center Methodist Church was orga- 
nized in 1857. A church was built in 1859, 
and dedicated June 5, the same year. It num- 
bered about twenty-five members, at first com- 
posed of Americans only. The German Lu- 



therans bought a half interest in it in 1879, since 
which time the Germans have increased in 
numbers, while the Americans have diminished. 

The Catholic Church at Elmhurst. — This was 
built in the year 1862, by Rev. P. Meinrad, a 
Benedictine Father, and about twelve Catholic 
families. 

In 1864, the Redemptorist Fathers attended 
this mission every second Sunday from Chicago 
until 1876, when Right Rev. Bishop Foley ele- 
vated it to a parish, appointing Rev. Charles 
Becker as the first stationary pastor. 

He was succeeded, in 1877, by Rev. M. Wolly, 
and, in 1880, by the present pastor, Rev. C. J. 
Niederberger, who has, by his clerical bearing 
in the execution of his duties as pastor, won 
the esteem not only of his own flock, but of the 
citizens of Elmhurst, who have verified this by 
their contributions to improve the grounds of 
the church and parsonage, with hedge rows and 
trees and flowers, nor did the friends of the 
church stop here. Two line oil paintings, one 
on each side of the altar, have also been con- 
tributed by them. The subjects are the " Ma- 
dona and the Infant Jesus," which is on the 
left, and the other, " St. Joseph and the In- 
fant Jesus," which is on the right. They were 
painted by H. Kaiser, a pupil of the celebrated 
M. P. Von Deschwandore, of Switzerland. Pict- 
ures of the fourteen stations ornament the sides 
of the church, and the recess, in which is the 
altar, is tastefully adorned with sacred devices 
appi'opriate to the place, find well calculated to 
inspire the conscientious one who kneels be- 
fore it with good resolutions. The number of 
parishioners has now increased to sixty families, 
one-third of whom are Irish and the other Ger- 
man. 

LOMBARD. 

This is a pleasantly located village on the 
eastern boundary of Babcock's Grove, which 
name was first given to the place. Luther 
Morton and Winslow Churchill, Jr., made 
claims in 1831. where this village now stands, 



252 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



and built a log house. Mr. Morton bought his 
land of the Government when it came into 
market, and assigned his certificate to his 
brother, Nathaniel B., in 1843, who sold out to 
Reuben Mink in 1846, May 14, who in turn 
sold out to Josiah Lombard, in 1867, who 
changed the name to that which it now has. 

John Rumble came to the place in 1843, and 
Hiram Whittemore and Levi Ballou in 1846. 
J. B. Hull came to the place and built a house 
and store in 1848. He was also first Postmas- 
ter, and when the railroad came through the 
next year he was the station agent. Chauncey 
Harmon was section boss on the road. 

For many years previous to the completion 
of the railroad, Babcock's Grove enjoyed a wide 
reputation as a kind of center for a future vil- 
lage when the country should become sufficient- 
ly settled to require one. In 1851, there were 
five frame houses and one store at the place, 
besides the building owned by the railroad 
company, which was a depot and hotel and 
kept by Mr. Parsons. 

It was platted by J. S. Lombard and others 
April 28, 1868. Situated on parts of Sections 
5, 6, 7, 8, and 18, Township 39, Range 11. Its 
elevation above Lake Michigan is 127 feet. 

Daniel Shehan came to the place in 1848, 
and succeeded Mr. Hull as station agent, re- 
taining the post till it was occupied b}' the 
present agent. 

CHURCH HISTORY OF LOMBARD. 

The first church organization which made 
the village of Babcock's Grove (now Lombard) 
its center, was inaugurated on November 28, 
1851. Rev. E. E. Wells, agent of the "West- 
ern Home and Foreign Missionary Association," 
was present to give form to the enterprise. The 
following nine persons were the original mem- 
bers : Rev. Charles Boswell and wife, Mr. Will- 
iam Emerson and wife, Mr. Phineas Ames and 
wife (Mrs. Ames was a daughter of Mr. and 
Mrs. Emerson), Mrs. Pamela Filer, Mrs. Marga- 



ret Dodge (wife of Mr. Pardon Dodge) and Mr. 
Ebenezer Landers. 

The Congregational Church of Babcock's 
Grove, thus organized, stood firm and square, 
not onl}- upon the ancient foundations, but also 
upon the live issues of the day. It opened its 
fellowship to "all who love our Lord Jesus 
Christ in sincerity, who have witnessed a good 
profession before men and practically honor 
their Master ;" but in welcoming to the Lord's 
Supper all such believers, it said also : " Per- 
sons engaged in the manufacture, sale or use of 
intoxicating liquors as a beverage, slaveholders 
and apologists for slavery are not included in 
this invitation." 

For several years, the Sabbath worship and 
the Sabbath school, which was a year older than 
the church, were held in the village schoolhouse, 
a building about half-a-mile east of the present 
Lombard Station, and now used as the dwelling 
of Mr. D. Klussmej'er. 

In 1852, the little compairy was increased by 
the addition of Mr. and Mrs. William Neflf and 
Mrs. Mary Miller (first wife of Mr. Thomas 
Miller). Rev. James McChesnej' and wife, Mr. 
and Mrs. Charles Mather and Mrs. Sarah E. 
Somers (a daughter of Mr. William Emerson) 
were added to it in February, 1855. In the 
same mouth, the church at Danby (now Pros- 
pect Park), which had been organized in Jan- 
uary, 1850, was dissolved, and of its members, 
Mr. Stephen Van Tassel and wife, Mr. Alfred 
Standish and wife, Mrs. R. Rudock, Mrs. Mar- 
tha Dean, Mrs. Fidelia Ober (wife of Mr. David 
Ober), Mrs. Mercy Churchill, Mrs. Cornelia 
Brooks and Mrs. H. Ackerman immediately 
joined the church of Babcock's Grove. 

In the autumn of 1856, the meetings began 
to be held in the Baptist Church at Du Page 
Center (now Stacj's Corners), in the township 
of Milton, that point being more central for 
the congregation as changed by the recent ad- 
ditions. The church, however, still kept as a 
preaching station its old place at " The Grove." 



YOEK TOWNSHIP. 



253 



The body had become strong enough in 18(50 
to consider the matter of " building meeting- 
houses at Danby and Babcock's Grove." A re- 
sult of this movement was the organization, in 
February of that year, of the " Congregational 
Society of Danby," for the purpose of erecting 
a building and caring for the financial affairs of 
the church. No corresponding work was ef- 
fected at Babcock's Grove. 

April 27, 1861, the church unanimously "re- 
solved that this church shall hereafter be 
known as the ' First Congregational Church of 
Danby,' and its regular place of worship shall 
be in that village." 

Of the church whose history is here dropped, 
Rev. Charles Boswell was the first pastor and 
clerk. He died, in the pastorate, in 1852 or 
1853. Rev. Harry Jones seems to have been 
a preacher here, as well as at Danby, in 1853. 
But Rev. James McChesney was pastor of the 
church during the greater part of its existence, 
remaining with it after its location at Danby. 
He acted also as Clerk, and the public is in- 
debted to him for the preservation of his faith- 
ful records of the earl}' times. The first Deacon 
of the church was Mr. William Emerson, who 
held that office until his death, which occurred 
about 1856. 

From 1861 to 1866, no church organization 
existed in the village. The death or removal 
of early supporters and the confusions incident 
to the war conspired to prevent such work ; but 
preaching was sustained pretty regularly and 
the Sunday school was frequently in a vigorous 
condition. Among its early Superintendents 
were successively Rev. Mr. Boswell, Mr. W. Em- 
erson, Mr. Phincas Ames, Mr. Adam Hatfield, 

Mr. Seth Churchill, Mr. Davis and various 

men who had acted as temporary preachers. 

In 1859, the sehoolhouse now in use was 
built, and the congregation removed thither. 

In the autumn of 1864 — since which time 
the writer has been familiar with the town his- 
tory — and the succeeding winter, Rev. Mr. Wa- 



teman was Superintendent. J. T. Reade served 
from March, 1865, to the close of 1866. This 
brings the school inside the time when a more 
permanent church force began to be operant. 

During the years 1865-69, the population of 
the village was increased by the coming of 
man} - familes specially interested in Christian 
institutions and public-spirited in giving freely 
for their support. 

In the summer of 1866, Mr. (now Rev.) 
James Tompkins, then a student of Chicago 
Theological Seminary, had been preaching to 
the congregation for several months, the meet- 
ings being held in the sehoolhouse. On the 
26th of July of that year was formed 

The First Church of Christ, Babcock's Grove, 
and on August 2, a council of the neighboring 
churches and clergymen met and gave it a 
brotherly recognition. Six denominations 
were represented in the original membership of 
fourteen. It was, as it is claimed to be, a 
Union Church of Evangelical Christians, and 
at first kept free from all ecclesiastical connec- 
tions. The persons thus allying themselves 
were : 

Joseph B. Hull and Fanny E., his wife; Isaac 
Claflinand Mary W.,his wife; Josiah T. Reade 
and Christia (now deceased), his wife; Allen 
B. Wrisley and Lucy, his wife; Mrs. Clarissa 
Frisbie (now deceased); Mrs. Margaret A. Mil- 
ler (now deceased), second wife of Mr. Thomas 
Miller; Mrs. Emily Fish ; Miss Lydia M. Hull 
(now deceased); Miss M. Albina Harris (now 
Mrs. Frank Hull); and R, Franklin Claflin. 

The meetings continued to be held mostly in 
the sehoolhouse. But, in about two years from 
its organization, the church having increased 
well in numbers and means, a beautiful chapel 
was erected on the lot at the northeast corner 
of Main and Maple streets, the spot now oc- 
cupied by the residence of Mrs. John Bracken. 
It was dedicated on December 3, 1868. This 
building was destroyed by an incendiary 
fire on the night of August 27, 1869. 



254 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Up to this time the church property had been 
owned by the church itself, an incorporated 
body. Immediately after the loss of its edi- 
fice an " ecclesiastical society " was formed to 
manage financial affairs. This bod}' thought 
best to change the church location, and there- 
fore built its new house on North Main street. 
This was used for worship till 1873. 

The pastors of this church were: Rev. James 
Tompkins, from its origin to May, 1869; Rev. 
Osmar W. Fay, from June, 1869, to November 
2, 1869; Rev. Henry T. Rose, from May, 1870, 
to October, 1871; and after this Rev. Josiah A. 
Mack, for a time not recorded exactly. The 
first Deacon of this church was J. T. Reade, 
and Isaac Claflin was its first Clerk. 

The village, having been incorporated in 
1S69 as the "Town of Lombard," the church 
underwent a corresponding change of name. 

The First Congregational Church of Lom- 
bard was formed October 22, 1869, with thir- 
teen original members. With the exception of 
three, they came directly from the '• First 
Church of Christ," and were as follows: 

Nathaniel S. dishing and Elizabeth B., his 
wife; Newton Chapin and Caroline B., his 
wife ; A. B. Chatfield and Emma L., his wife; 
J. Benson Vallette and Ruth M., his wife; Mrs. 
Margaret A. Miller (now deceased); Mrs. J. E. 
Ambrose; Miss Eva C. Cushing; Noah Shep- 
ardson; and Charles M. Lewis (now deceased). 

An ecclesiastical society to work in connec- 
tion with the church was also formed, and a 
church building was immediately commenced 
at the southwest corner of Main and Maple 
streets. It was dedicated May 29, 1870, and 
is still used as a place of worship. 

On January 20, 1870. a council of Congre- 
gational Churches and clergymen met and rec- 
ognized this church as a member of Congrega- 
tional sisterhood. 

Rev. O. W. Fay, having closed his connec- 
tion with the older church, became pastor of 
this immediately upon its organization, and 



continued with it till 1872. The first Deacons 
were N. S. Cushing and Newton Chapin, and 
the first Clerk was J. B. Vallette. 

The First Church, Lombard.— In 1873, the 
irapolic} - of sustaining two churches of the 
same general faith having been thoroughly dem- 
onstrated, the two were discontinued, by agree- 
ment, and on May 2 of that year, the present 
organization, bearing the above name, was 
formed. It is " Evaugelical" in its creed, and 
Congregational in its polit} r , and belongs to 
Chicago Association. It occupies the " south 
side " church, having sold the other building. 

The church had no regular pastor until April, 
1874. Rev. Charles Caverno then commenced 
his work, in which he still continues. Nathan- 
iel S. Cushing and Allen B. Wrisley were the 
first Deacons. The first Clerk and Treasurer 
was William L. Rogers (now deceased). 

There are now eighty resident members. 
The financial affairs are cared for by an allied 
society of the usual form. Among the enter- 
prises that look hither for their inspiration is 
the church library, partly of religious, but 
mostly of general literature, numbering about 
eight hundred volumes, and now open to the 
general public. — J. T. Reade. 

BUSINESS MEN. 

I. Claflin, real estate. 

B. T. Teets & Sons, hardware. 
August Koerber, miller. 

C. Fabri, harness-maker. 
R. Grunwald, shoe-maker. 
P. Arnoldi, shoe-maker. 

A. B. Wrisley, soap manufacturer. 

W. Stuenkel, butter and cheese factory. He 
receives 6,000 pounds of milk daily and makes 
300 pounds of cheese; also 200 pounds of but- 
ter daily. 

A. E. and D. C. Hills, general store. 

A. E. Hills, general auctioneer. 

Gray & Malcomb. hardware and farm imple- 
ments. 



WIXFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



255 



L. Marquart & Bros., general store, feed and 
grain. 

John Q. Reber, grocer. 

B. M. Ackerruan, butcher. 

John Fischer, blacksmith and wagon-maker. 

C. W. Oleson, physician and surgeon. 
Joseph Gregorj', carpenter and builder. 
Richard Wells, ice cream and confectionery. 
Dave Frank, mason and contractor. 
Henry Assman, mason and contractor. 
Levi Castleman, painter. 



N. S. Cushing, retired. 

Martin Hogau, section boss, Chicago & North 
Western Railroad. 

John Patterson, station agent, Chicago & 
North Western Railroad. 

Melvin Ballon, conductor, Chicago & North- 
Western Railroad. 

0. F. Long, engineer, Chicago & North-West- 
ern Railroad. 

M. C. Carroll, fine groceries, flour, etc. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



WINFIELD TOWNSHIP— WARRENVILLE — WATER CRESSES — THEIR CONSEQUENCES— NEWCOMERS 
AND DISTANT NEIGHBORS — PARTIES AND RAISINGS — RAILSPL1TTING — FOURTH OF JULY 
— THE SCHOOLGIRL'S HANDKERCHIEF— THE OLD SAW-MILL— THE HOTEL AND DANCING 
HALL — WHAT WAS IN A TRUNK OF OLD PAPERS — CHURCHES— THE WARRENVILLE 
ACADEMY— GARY'S MILLS— METHODIST CHURCH AT THE PLACE— A SHYLOCK MEM- 
BER EXCOMMUNICATED— WINFIELD — TURNER JUNCTION —JOHN B. TURNER. 



AS we drink at the fountains of nature, 
how little do we know of her subterra- 
nean secrets. In arid deserts, and sometimes 
even in fruitful countries of considerable ex- 
tent, no living springs are found, but they 
occur along the banks of the Du Page River 
at many places, and in profusion at Warren- 
ville. Here they burst out of the ground un- 
tarnished with the tincture of lead or iron 
pipes — the bane of water in all large cities — 
and in their pebbly-bottomed rivulets a tangle 
of water-cresses overspreads their trickling 
courses to the river. It is said that where 
speckled trout are found in the streams of a 
country, no fever and ague exists there. This 
does not go to show that trout are an antidote to 
the ague. Nor is it claimed that water-cresses 
make pure water, but it is claimed that pure 
cold water makes water-cresses, the same as a 
healthful, well-drained country abounding in 
mountain torrents makes speckled trout. Both 
the trout and water-cresses are refined produc- 



tions in animal and vegetable life from the 
laboratory of nature, the handiwork of her 
geological composition whose formula is a 
sealed book to us. 

The delightful springs attracted the attention 
of the first settlers at what is now Warreuville 
and its vicinity, and the following are their 
names in the order in which they came : Eras- 
tus Can', now living at Wheaton ; Jude P. 
Gar}-, who died in 1881 on his farm, and The- 
ron Parsons, all came in 1832 and made claims. 
Alvah Fowler and Col. J. M. Warren, both of 
whom now live in W arrenville, came and made 
claims in the spring of 1833. Ira Herrick and 
Jacob Galusha, neither now living, came the 
same year, and made claims near Warrenville. 
Israel Lord and Alfred Churchill both came to 
the vicinity and made claims in 1834. 

These were the true pioneers of what is now 
Winfield Township. To add to these names 
those who arrived soon afterward would multi- 
lily words without knowing where to stop, as 



256 



HISTORY OF DC PAGE COUNTY. 



so many settlers soon followed them. Daniel 
Warren, a native of Massachusetts, had settled 
at Naperville in 1833. His family consisted of 
a wife, whose maiden name was Nancy Morton, 
and the following children : Philinda H., who 
married Alvah Fowler, of Warrenville ; Louisa 
G., who married Frederick Bird, and then Silas 
E. Warren as her second husband ; Julius M. 
Warren, after whom Warrenville was named, 
and who now lives at the place ; Sally L., who 
married A. E. Carpenter, brother of Philo Car- 
penter, of Chicago ; Harriet N.. who married 
C. B. Dodson, of Geneva ; Maria and Mary 
(twins), the former of whom married S. B. 
Cobb, of Chicago, and the latter Jerome Beech- 
er, of the same place ; and Jane, who married 
N. B. Curtis, of Peoria. 

In the spring of 1834, Alvah Fowler, together 
with a large number of adventurers, made a 
tour of discovery to the north up the Desplaines 
River. After leaving the present site of May- 
wood, no white settlers were found, but the am- 
ple groves on its banks were alive with Indians, 
whose wigwams seemed to be omnipresent. At 
Half Day's village, in the present county of 
Lake, were forty or fifty families housed in their 
rude huts, killing the hours after the time- 
honored custom of their race, whose wants are 
limited according to their disinclination to work. 
There was a large burying-ground at the place, 
and a white flag flying over it as a sacred charm 
to honor the dead. 

To the north, there were no neighbors but 
the Meachams, the Dunklees, the Churchills and 
the Babcocks. At Brush Hill and at Downer's 
Grove, were settlements, and at Naperville, 
which was at their doors, comparatively speak- 
ing, and was the parent colony of all. To the 
west was the Fox River Valley, where clusters 
of houses had already been put up at Elgin, St. 
Charles, Geneva and Aurora, and near the pres- 
ent site of Batavia Mr. Dodson had a sawmill 
on a western tributary of the river. All these 
settlements seemed like neighbors together. 



They visited each other at parties, and assisted 
each other at raisings. The latter was one of 
the olden-time institutions, now almost obsolete, 
but then in the heyday of its glory, and, while 
it served a practical purpose, it also toned up 
the social feeling and became the means by 
which distant neighbors could form a knowl- 
edge of each other's character and a measure of 
their merits on general principles. 

After Col. Warren had made his claim in 
1833, he returned to his native place, and the 
next year (1S34) on coming back he found two 
new-comers. Grant Goodrich had come to the 
place and made a claim of 200 acres on the 
west side of the river, intending to make a 
farm. He hired sixteen acres of ground "broke," 
and in the programme took off his broadcloth 
coat, rolled up his sleeves and, with the assist- 
ance of Sidney Able, went to work at splitting 
rails to fence it. Here were two men, the one 
destined to become Judge of the Superior Court 
at Chicago and the other its Postmaster, maul- 
ing an iron wedge into an oak log by alternate 
strokes, not for amusement, but to make rails to 
fence in a corn-field. But these hours of labor 
were not without relief. Fourth of July came, 
and something must be done to leaven the vir- 
gin soil with patriotism, and Naperville was the 
" stamping ground " for all such gatherings. 

The morning came. There wei'e no bells to 
ring They did not need any such stimulent 
to set their patriotic blood to tingling in their 
veins. When the crowd had assembled, young 
Goodrich was honored with an invitation to 
read the Declaration of Independence, and he 
soon became the most conspicuous man iu the 
crowd. The next thing was to get a copy. 
Here was the fatal balk, for none could be 
found in all Naperville, and faces all round be- 
gan to look rueful, till a sweet little girl stepped 
forward and offered her pocket handkerchief, 
on which this immortal document was printed, 
justly proud of the service she had rendered 
to the convention. Young Henry B. Blodgett, 



WINFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



257 



the son of the stalwart blacksmith, now Judge 
of the court of the United States, at District in 
Chicago, then thirteen years old, sat near the 
honored elocutionist of the day, and paid 
strict attention to the words. Let us return to 
business. Col. Warren wanted to buy out the 
claim of Mr. Goodrich. He contemplated build- 
ing a saw-mill, and needed the land on both 
sides of the river whereupon to build his dam. 
Mr. Goodrich's hands were blistered splitting 
rails, and he was in a suitable frame of mind 
to sell. Col. Warren paid him 50 cents per 
hundred for the rails he had split, and a rea- 
sonable price for the breaking, and he quit- 
claimed to him. 

Col. Warren erected his house the same sea- 
son, hauling the lumber for it from Dodson's mill. 
This was the first frame house ever built at the 
place. His eldest sister kept house for him. 
The next year he built a saw-mill, and the place 
became a liveh - resort for mechanics, teamsters 
and fanners, as soon as the mill began to turn 
out lumber, a material so much needed in the 
country. A house was soon erected, where the 
strong men who rolled the logs to the saw car- 
riage with "cant-hooks " boarded, and in the 
upper story of it a room was finished off for a 
school, and here the lady who subsequently be- 
came Principal of the academy at the place, 
Mrs. Holmes, taught its first school. 

The next year, 1836, a schoolhouse was built 
by subscription. It is now remodeled into a 
private dwelling and occupied by Joseph Hud- 
son. A post office was established at the place 
in May, 1838, Col. Warren, Postmaster, who 
kept the office at his house. He is Postmaster 
at the present time. 

The same year, 1838, he built a fine hotel and 
spacious hall in it for dancing. It was pat- 
ronized by the elite of Chicago as well as 
Naperville and the Fox River towns, and here 
it was that John Wentworth made his debut 
into social circles, and the lady who first initiat- 
ed him into the graceful motions of the cotil- 



lion, still calls to mind the pleasing remin- 
iscence. No more refined and truly aesthetic 
circles than these dancing and private parties 
have ever graced the elegant drawing rooms of 
even Chicago since that eventful period. 

Their influence Las elevated the aims in life 
of many a man and woman now in the best 
ranks of society, and perhaps some of them 
in their twilight hour of life, in thinking of 
old scars in their hearts not yet quite healed 
over, can fix their dates in Col. Warren's old 
dancing hall. 

Amidst a trunk full of old Warrenville pa- 
pers from which scraps of history have been 
gathered by the writer, the following verses at- 
tracted his attention, and are here inserted to 
show the sentiment of the times. Their author 
is unknown. Perhaps he gave them to some 
inamorata who lost them and they fortunately 
found a place among these old musty records, 
to be rescued from oblivion in the pages of 
this book • 

" fly to the prairie, sweet maiden, with me, 
'Tis as green, and as wild, and as wide as the sea, 
O'er its emerald bosom the summer winds glide, 
And waves the wild grass like the vanishing tide. 

" Let us hie to the chase, lovely maiden, away, 
And follow the fawns as they gambol and play, 
On the back of the courser so lithe and so free, 
While circling and bounding o'er heather and lea. 

" The woodman delights in his trees and his shade, 
But the sun leaves no tinge of the cheeks of his maid 
His flowers are blighted, its colors are pale 
And weak is the breath when their perfumes exhale . 

" Soft zephyrs ere play in the prairie breeze, 
And furrow the grasses like waves of the seas, 
And waft o'er the landscape its sweets from the West. 
Aromas delicious, with fragrance possessed. 

" fly to the prairies, sweet maiden, with me, 
Each flower here dimples and blushes for thee, 
And nightly the moon in her star-studded sky 
Twinkles love in her ray while the katydids cry. 

" There is nothing to cloy in the wilds of the West, 
Each day hath its pleasures where love is confessed, 
My cottage now empty is waiting for thee, 
Will you come to my bower and share it with me ?" 



258 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



The same cooling springs now lave the banks 
of the river that then did, and the same water- 
cresses bathe their roots in their pools. They 
might have had something to do with the fine 
sentiments that then lived and grew there. If 
so, their mission may not yet be ended. This 
we will leave to the future, while the progress 
of events is continued. 

The village of Warrenville was platted by 
Julius M. Warren May 7, 1844. He was then 
a Representative of his district, and again in 
1850. 

Since the era of railroads, it has lost its 
equilibrium with other towns in the scale of 
progress ; but the end is not yet. 

That a brighter prospect will yet open before 
it seems certain, as the magnitude of Chicago 
will create a demand for its beautiful grounds for 
residences, and a way to reach them by railroad. 

The following is a list of the business men of 
the place : 

Cheese factory — Consumes 8,000 pounds of 
milk ; makes 200 pounds of butter, and 500 
pounds of cheese daily. R. R. Barnard is pro- 
prietor. 

The Warrenville Grist and Merchant Mill 
was built by Smith & Fowler in 1847. 

It came into possession of Lamb & Co. in 
1857 ; was burnt August 1 1, 1879 ; was rebuilt, 
and commenced running in March, 1880. It 
is a full roller mill, using the celebrated Gratiot 
Conical Vertical Gradual Reduction Machine. 
Uses 500 bushels of wheat, and manufactures 
100 barrels of flour per day. Brands — Peace- 
Maker and Reliable. 

Blacksmiths — J. M. Hollister, J. W. Watson, 
George F. Ressequie. 

Merchants — C. A. Bowen, J. T>. Hawbecker. 

Boot and shoe-maker — D. Stafford. 

Notary Public — J. Hudson. 

Justice of the Peace — A. T. Jones. 

House painter — Henry Wyman. 

Carpenter — L. V. Ressequie. 

Clergyman — Rev. — . Adams. 



WARRENVILLE ACADEMY. 

This institution, while in its prime, was to 
the country around what Oxford is to the En- 
glish Church to-day. The old building now 
stands a silent monument of its once beneficent 
mission. To the teachings within its walls 
man}' retrospections of youthful ambitious 
revert back with pleasing emotions from men 
and women now mature with life's experiences. 
Who can tell its history best? thought I, while 
looking at the untrodden grass that has en- 
croached upon the threshold of its door. 

For the necessary information I wrote to its 
early Principal, and the following is her reply, 
together with her historical sketch, which is 
better than any other one could write, for who 
else could measure the value and rehearse the 
story and make it live again, at least in mem- 
ory, as she has done it in her own unaffected 
style : 

" Rockford, July 7, 1882. 

■'Mr. Blanchard : I send you a brief, and. 
I feel, quite imperfect, manuscript. It may, 
however, serve as the basis of a better article. 
I found it difficult to get statistics ; dates may 
not be correct. I wrote to some who were as- 
sociated with me during the years I was en- 
gaged there, but the answers were not satisfac- 
tory, so I have given you the best I have at 
hand. 

'• You will see that I have not written this to 
be recognized as its author, only to give the 
facts in my possession as the groundwork of 
what you may say on the subject. 

" Yours very respectfully, 

" S. W. Holmes. 

" In the settlement of every new country, one 
of the first objects of the settlers seems to be 
to organize some effective sj'stem of education. 
In Du Page County, Warrenville aimed to take 
the lead in that direction. As early as 1843- 
44, two schools were opened in Warrenville, 
one under the auspices of the Baptist denomi- 
nation with the design of founding a collegiate 



WINFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



259 



institution, the other under the supervision of 
Misses H. W. Bryant and S. Warren. Both 
these schools flourished for a time, and did 
good work, but both, for some reason, were 
given up. After that time, several teachers 
had commenced operations there, but had 
abandoned the project and gone into more 
promising fields of labor. In 1850, the good 
people of Warrenville and vicinity, aided by 
strong, earnest friends from Chicago, who were 
desirous of sending their children to some 
healthy country place to be educated, succeeded 
in raising an amount necessary for the erection 
of a suitable building for the accommodation 
of a school. The institution was duly in- 
corporated by an act of Legislature, a Board 
of Directors was chosen, the financial aud edu- 
cational charge was intrusted to Mrs. S. W. 
Holmes. The school was opened in September 
1851. Competent teachers were secured. Mrs. 
Holmes converted her own home into a board- 
ing-house for pupils from abroad. The patron- 
age was fair. The number of pupils taught in 
the school for the next four or five years was 
between one and two hundred each year. In 
1855-56, B. F. Taylor was engaged to take 
charge of the male department of the institu- 
tion, and a fine class of 3'oung men were sent 
out from Chicago to fit for college under his 
instruction. This measure promised well, but 
owing to Mr. Taylor's resignation, proved an 
unfortunate one for the material interests of 
the school. After some delay, a gentleman was 
found to supply Mr. Taylor's place, but the 
delay was fatal. Mrs. Holmes, although ably- 
assisted by Mr. C. Howes and Miss M. C. 
Knight, feeling that it would be difficult to tide 
the school over the crisis, resigned her position. 
The Directors took the finances in charge, and 
the school passed into other hands. The fort- 
unes of the school for the next three or four 
years were fluctuating, when Mrs. Holmes was 
recalled, and, assisted by Mrs. M. V. Bull, 
again took charge of the institution. Mrs. 



Bull remained about two years, and was suc- 
ceeded by Miss M. C. Knight. Under their 
supervision, the school was brought up to its 
former standard, but the demand for increased 
facilities were greater than the ladies in charge 
could supply, and the school was again aban- 
doned. During these many years, hundreds of 
pupils went out from this school to take then- 
places in the active arena of life, with a broader 
outlook, with higher aims and nobler ambitions. 
The course of instruction they had received 
aimed to develop thought-power, to quicken 
mental activity, to rouse latent energy, and 
give the self-reliance necessar}' for the cumula- 
tive responsibilities that lay before them. So 
far as it accomplished this purpose, its brief 
existence became a moral force, whose power 
must be enduring. At the opening of the civil 
war, many students went out from that school 
and took their places in the ranks of the Union 
army. Ashley Carpenter, Joseph Monk and his 
brother Corelle, Ferdinand and Daniel Fowler, 
William Ray, Alvord Drullard were, within a few 
months, brought back aud consigned to their 
final rest in the village cemetery. Dr. J. M. 
Woodworth, Gen. F. A. Starring and his brother, 
Capt. William Starring, followed the fortunes of 
the war to its close. Dr. Woodworth has since 
died at the post of duty in Washington. The 
mission and influence of this school inay still 
be traced by the life-record of those who were 
its members, as every seed dropped in the fer- 
tile soil of the young heart germinates and 
bears fruit, ' it may be a hundred fold,' ac- 
cording to the strength of the germ and the 
favoring influence of its environments, so that 
the social and educational force which gave to 
Warrensville an impetus for a few years, may be 
repeated from new centers which trace their life- 
threads back to a starting-point in that village 
school." 

CHURCHES. 

Baptist Church. — As early as 1834, steps 
were taken to organize a Baptist Church, so 



260 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



says the record, but in 1836 measures were 
taken to organize a society, and a church was 
established numbering sixteen members, Rev. 
L. B. King, pastor. He was succeeded by A. 
B. Hubbard, Joel Wheeler, A. J. Joslyn, P. 
Taylor, Joel Wheeler, S. F. Holt, Freeman and 
H. Wescott. The societ}' first worshiped in a 
private house, and next in a schoolhouse, till 
this church was built, in 1857, which is a com- 
modious edifice, on a beautiful site, and im- 
parts to the town an air of propriety. Mrs. 
Alvah Fowler is now the only remaining one 
living of the original sixteen who formed this 
church. 

Methodist Episcopal Church. — This denomi- 
nation has a fine church, eligibly located, at 
which regular preaching is sustained, and also 
a flourishing Sabbath school. Rev. J. R. Wel- 
burn is its present Pastor. 

gary's mills. 
Just above the southern line of Section 15 
in the present township of Winfield, the West 
Fork of the Du Page River presents unusual 
attractions. Its banks are firm on both sides, 
and graduate upward, without marshy inter- 
vals. The current of the river is active, and 
afforded a mill site of fair promise. There 
was then much valuable timber in the adjacent 
groves, and the three Gary brothers, Erastus, 
Jude and Charles, jointly erected a saw-mill at 
the place in 1837, which then gave a reasona- 
ble assurance of becoming the most important 
town in the county except Naperville. A post 
office was soon organized at the place, Charles 
Gary, Postmaster. A store was next estab- 
lished, kept by William Gar}', the present 
banker in Wheaton. A schoolhouse was built 
which proved more permanent than anything 
else built there, as it is still standing and in 
use. The inevitable church organization came 
in with the rest, and this spot became the 
nucleus around which the Methodism of the 
immediate country first planted its principles 



into the soil, " to use a figure." It was under 
the charge of Rev. Washington Wilcox, who 
rode the Du Page Circuit (as this region was 
then called), and preached to the new congre- 
gation in the schoolhouse at Gary's Mills everv 
fourth week. Erastus, Jude and Charles Gary, 
Warren L. and Jesse C. Wheaton, Hezekiah 
Holt and family, William Ainsworth, Peter B. 
Curtis and family, Nat. Brown, Mrs. Woodard 
and a few others were members. A black- 
smith shop next came in, where Mr. Foster, 
like others at the place, " struck while the iron 
was hot," and Gaiy's Mills became a center at 
which covetous eyes looked with regret that 
the} - had not made early claims there. The 
old settlers of Turner Junction and Wheaton 
for several years received their letters there. 
It also became the place where camp-meetings 
were held, and the groves near by, which were 
then vocal with singing, are now solitudes. 

When this place was in the heyday of its 
glory, the church there may claim the honor of 
having first established a principle worthy of 
imitation. The case was this : One of its mem- 
bers, Nat. Brown, held a deed for forty acres 
of land near the place, ten acres of which he 
was justly bound, by the rules of Claim Socie- 
ties, to deed back to Mrs. Woodard, whose 
claim, before the surveys were made, covered 
the said ten acres. This he refused to do, and 
in this resolution he had the law on his side, 
but not the higher law of justice. The matter 
came before the church, and he still refused to 
relinquish the land. Here was a dilemma — a 
brother refusing to do an act of simple justice 
because the law did not compel him to do it. 
'Tis true, he might some time repent of this sin, 
but repentance without restoration was but a 
skiu-deep disguise, and if such repentance 
could not be verified by restitution when the 
land was worth but $3 per acre, as at pres- 
ent, would it be likely to come with this 
vouchsafe when the land had increased in 
value to five or ten times that amount, as 




DEITRICK GRAUE. 



WINFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



263 



such men as the Wheatons, Garys, Curtises 
and Holts must have thought a probability ? 
An3' expectation of a remote restitution was 
not to be thought of, and Mr Brown was ex- 
communicated by a clear vote of the church. 

The name of Gary's Mills is still familiar, 
though the mills, having executed their mis- 
sion, which was to saw into lumber all the use- 
ful timber near by, have been suffered to deca}^. 
The dam has gone with the floods, and the mill 
has been entirely demolished by the ravages of 
time, though the most of the private dwellings 
at the place still stand there, tenanted by till- 
ers of the soil. 

The West Fork of the Da Page passes through 
the eastern portion of Winfleld Township. Its 
banks graduate upward in the form of rolling 
lands on both sides, beyond which are exten- 
sive lands sufficiently rolling for drainage, all 
of which are fertile and well suited to dairy 
business or the growth of cereals. 

There are eight schools in the township, in- 
cluding the graded school at Turner's Junction, 
and 782 persons between the ages of five and 
twenty-one years. 

TURNER JUNCTION. 

A brief biographical sketch of the gentle- 
man for whom this village was named caunot 
fail to be of interest to every reader, the more 
so on account of the high standard of integrity 
he ever maintained through a long and useful 
life: 

John B. Turner was born in Colchester, Del- 
aware Co., N. Y., January 14, 1799. His father 
died when he was two years of age ; his mother 
when he was fourteen. He was adopted by 
Mr. and Mrs. Powers at eleven years of age. 
Mr. Powers purchased a farm in Martin, Sar- 
atoga Co., N. Y., upon which he labored for 
nine years. In 1819, he married Miss Martha 
Volemine, formed a copartnership with Joshua 
Parmelee, who had married the twin sister of 
his bride. They successfully prosecuted the 



agricultural labors upon the Volentine farm for 
five years. In 1835, Mr. Turner embarked in 
railroad enterprise ; he first contracted to build 
seven miles of the Ransom & Saratoga Railroad. 
In the same 3*ear, he constructed a part of the 
New York & Erie Railroad. In this work he 
continued until the crisis of 1837, then he en- 
gaged in the work of building the Genesee 
Valley Canal. In 1841, he contracted to grade 
seven miles of the Troy & Schenectady Rail- 
road. In 1843, he came to Chicago, and in 
1847, was appointed Acting Director of the 
Galena & Chicago Union Railroad Company, 
which had been chartered in 1836. In 1848, he 
accompanied B. W. Raymond to New York, 
and by his previous experience in railroad 
building, and having examined the surveyed 
route of the Galena & Chicago Railroad, aided 
very much in the sale of the bonds and stock of 
the Galena & Chicago Railroad ; work com- 
menced March, 1848, and track laid to Free- 
port, 121 miles. In 1853, the Dixon Air Line 
was commenced, and the same year he organ- 
ized the Beloit & Madison Railroad Company. 
He resigned the Presidency of Galena, Chicago 
& Northwestern Railroad Company. In 1858, 
as a citizen of Chicago, he was not forgetful of 
her local prospects and interests ; was a Direc- 
tor in Boards of Water Commissioners ; organ- 
ized the North Side Horse Railroad Company. 
His wife, mother of his six children, died in 
1853. Two years after, he married Miss Ade- 
line Williams. Among the many whose names 
Chicago is proud to honor and perpetuate, none 
are more deserving than that of John B. Turner, 
with a record of more than seventy years, and 
a character unstained by the many corruptions 
of the present age. His declining years were 
spent amid the sunshine of life, sincerely 
mourned by his many friends, among whom 
he was universally respected and beloved. He 
died on the 26th day of February, 1871. 

Many years before it was supposed that a 
thriving village was to spring up here, the 



264 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



land on which it now stands had been taken up 
in claims by settlers expecting to make farms 
of it. 

The claim covering the present village was 
brought by Capt. Alonzo Harvey. Among the 
early residents at or near the place were James 
Couley, from Mount Morris, N. Y., who is still 
a citizen of the town. Sherman Winslow was 
his nearest neighbor to the east. Next in the 
same direction was George W. Eastern. Job A. 
Smith, Thomas Brown and William Ribley 
were not far away in the same direction. 

South of him were Warren Towne and Will- 
iam Bailey, and north, John Barre. 

When the railroad came through the place 
in 1849, Michael McDonald came from Chicago 
and opened a general store, but subsequently 
sold out to his brother Joseph, who in turn 
sold the same to Joel Wiant in the spring of 
1 857. The place at this date, says Mr. Wiant, 
consisted only of a post office, kept by C. D. 
Smith; a blacksmith shop, by Mr. Foster; a 
doctor's office and about two hundred inhabit- 
ants all told. 

James M. Dale was station agent. Mr. Con- 
ley, in 1S48, bought eighty acres of land where 
the graded school now stands, for $3 per acre, 
which is now worth $10 a front foot in lots. 

Mr. A. Archer owned ninety-six acres near 
the center of the town. He did not like rail- 
roads, and refused either to give or even to sell 
the right of way through it, but would sell the 
whole tract for $530.00. The railroad company 
bought it ; a few \-ears later it became worth 
from $200 to $300 per lot. 

The G alena & Chicago Union Railroad Com- 
pany platted the town, and recorded it Sep- 
tember 29, 1855. 

It is situated on the northwest quarter of 
Section 10, Township 39, Range 9, and its ele- 
vation above Lake Michigan is 182 feet. By 
the last census the village contained 1,125 in- 
habitants, having attained these numbers not 
by a spasmodic but a steady growth. 



The machine shops and other buildings of 
the Chicago & North- Western Railroad Com- 
pany consist of a freight-house, built in 1856; 
two water tanks, one built in 1862, the other in 
1865; round-house, built in 1864; rail mill and 
depot, both built in 1869; junction round- 
house and repairs shops, repairs engine tools 
and machine^-; at rail mill, rails are cut, 
straightened, drilled and reslotted; twenty- 
horse power engine at round-house, and em- 
ploys thirty-two men; at rail mill, uses forty- 
horse power engine, and employs eleven men. 
Foreman of shop and rail mill, David Hanney. 

SCHOOLS OF TURNER JUNCTION. 

Its pioneer school was taught in a log house 
situated on property now owned by E. Carey. 
Miss Sarah Carter was its first teacher, but in 
1856 school was kept in a small building 
standing on the spot now occupied by the Con- 
gregational Church, when Miss Arvilla Currier 
taught. She is now the wife of Charles M. 
Clark, a well-known citizen of the place. The 
nextjear a two story schoolhouse was built on 
North street, in the eastern part of the town, 
in which the school was continued for sixteen 
years. When the present building for the 
graded school was finished, which was in 1873, 
John Tye, William Ripley and Charles M. Clark 
were Directors, and also constituted the build- 
ing committee. The entire cost of the build- 
ing was $23,502.50. It contains four rooms — 
being one for each department ; a recitation 
room, a library room and lecture room in the 
basement. 

The course of stud}' includes only English 
branches, but classical and foreign languages 
are taught outside of the regular course. 

Miss H. F. Yakeley has been Principal for 
seven years. Miss Lizzie Davis. Miss Addie 
Everden, Miss Louisa Anthony and Miss 
Annie Lockwood are the names of the teachers. 

Under the charge of the Principal, the school 
has won distinction in the county for its good 



W INFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



265 



discipline. And here it is due to its credit to 
state that Mr. Clark, who has been Director 
ever since 1872, gives Miss Yakeley credit for 
managing the school with so much discretion 
as to leave him little care to distract his atten- 
tion from his daily routine of other responsi- 
bilities. It is also due to the credit of Miss 
Emma Davies, who formerly had charge of the 
Primary Department, to say that her system of 
training and gymnastic drilling of the little 
ones under her charge won the admiration of 
all who beheld it. The School Board of 
Rockford, who came to the place to witness it. 
pronounced hers the best drilled class in the 
State. 

A library of 300 volumes has been provided 
for the school, from the proceeds of its exhibi- 
tions. The average attendance is about 250, 
from an enrollment of 300. 

CHURCHES. 

]fi thodist Episcopal Church. — " Just when the 
church at Turner was built the records do not 
show, but believed to have been during 1857 
and 1858. The parsonage was built some ten 
years later. 

" In all this work Charles Gary was a leading 
spirit. His house was a preaching place in 
1835. He was many years a class leader ; 
March 23, 1850, licensed to preach ; four years 
later, assistant preacher ; and in 1861 ordained 
Deacon. To his long and faithful services, as 
much as to any other, is due the establishment 
of Turner Methodist Episcopal Church. 

" Most of the fathers have passed to their re- 
ward. As far as we can learn, only Eraatua 
Gary and Edward D. Wheedon remain of those 
who composed the quarterly conference of the 
original Du Page Circuit. 

" Turner now stands in the front rank of vil- 
lage churches on Chicago District. During the 
last year, 123 different names were on her reg- 
ister, twenty-one were baptized and $198.58 
contributed for benevolent purposes." 



Rev. William H. Holmes is the present pas- 
tor of the church. He has recently written a 
"History of Early Methodism in Du Page 
County and Adjacent Territory," from which 
the above sketch has been copied verbatim. 

German M. E. Church. — The Methodist Epis- 
copal Church of the Germans was organized in 
the spring of 1864 by about a dozen men. Rev. 
John G. Keller came from Aurora to preach 
every Sunday, services being held in the Ger- 
man language at the Methodist Church already 
organized by the American portion of the 
community, where English services were 
held. 

The name of the present pastor is Jacob 
Shafer, who resides also in Aurora, and preaches 
once in two weeks in the German language to 
this church, in the house owned by tbeir Amer- 
ican brethren. 

German Evangelical Church. — The German 
Evangelical Protestant Church was established 
in the summer of 1870, and the church edifice 
finished the same year. Mr. John M. Faessler 
was appointed on the building committee, in 
connection with Rev. Julius Schumm. 

Mr. Schumm was pastor nearly two years 
when he was succeeded by Rev. Gustave Koch. 
He was succeeded by Rev. Jacob Purrer, who 
remained nearly two j*ears, when the pulpit was 
supplied for about a year by theological stu- 
dents from the Melancthon College in Elmhurst, 
Rev. Fredrick Boeber was the next ordained 
pastor, who remained about a year. Rev. Hen- 
rich Wolf came next, and remained about three 
years, and was succeeded by Rev. William Hat- 
tendorf, the present pastor. 

The church is out of debt and in a flourish- 
ing situation. 

A parsonage was built in 1SS1 and a German 
school in attachment to it. The school is taught 
by the minister. 

Congregational Church. — On May 17, 1856, 
this church was organized with the following 
members: Dr. J. McConnell, John L. Haga- 



266 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUXTY. 



done, Margaret Hagadone, Mar}' Town. Rev. 
Lot Church as pastor, assisted by the Rev. Mr. 
Watkins from Vermont, adopting the Constitu- 
tion, Discipline and Articles of Faith of the 
Pox River Union, Dr. J. McConnell and J. L. 
Hagadone its first Deacons. The next minister 
called was Rev. Mr. Champlin, who preached 
off and on until the church was re-organized 
March 30, 1867, finding at that time only 
seven members remaining, and all of them 
females. A meeting was called by the Rev. J. 
E. Roy, who was then acting as Home Mission- 
ary, for the purpose of organizing and building 
a church on the lot given by J. B. Turner, 
where the present church remains at present, 
with the following members : W. J. Wilson, 
Mrs. H. M. Nelson, Mr. Esbon Morrill and wife, 
Mrs. Charlotte Delton, Dr. H. C. French, Msr. 
Julia A. French, making in all fourteen mem- 
bers. Steps were then taken to build a house 
of worship, Rev. J. E. Roy supplying the pul- 
pit, preaching in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church until the church was 'built, which was 
dedicated March 8, 1868, out of debt. Rev. J. 
D. Davis was called from the Chicago Semi- 
nary, who preached six months during vaca- 
tion (was then a student), after which Rev. I. 

B. Smith was called, and preached about two 
years. The Rev. A. R. Thain was called, and 
preached three years. Rev. Mr. Fox was the 
next pastor, who preached one year. After 
that, the Rev. H. M. Skeels was called, and 
preached five years. The present pastor is 
Rev. E. L. Hill. The church has a member- 
ship of eighty members, with the present offi- 
cers, T. Brown, C. K. Sanders and E. Boyntou, 
Trustees ; Watson and Manvill, Deacons ; W. 
J. Wilson, Clerk, with a large Sunday school of 
over one hundred members, with a good libra- 
ry, and the following officers : W. J. Wilson, 
Superintendent ; R. T. Robinson, Assistant ; 
T. Evendon, Librarian ; J. Grove, Clerk ; Mrs. 

C. K. Sanders, Treasurer. — W. J. Wilson, 
Church Clerk. 



CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

Services are held once in two weeks by Rev. 
Dominick Spellman, who resides at Aurora. 

LODGES. 

Amity Lodge No. 472, A., F. & A. M., was 
chartered October 3, A. D. 1866, A. L. 5866. 

Charter Members : John H. Lakey, Joseph 
McConnell, Richard W. Bushnell, Joel Wiant, 
H. H. Ketcham, John McWilliams, John Tye, 
F. F. Lovelaud, J. Newbarger, William Ripley. 
Jr., M. Fessler, A. H. Wiant, G. McAuley and 
Thomas Wiant. The following brethren were 
installed as the officers at that time. John H. 
Lakey, W.M.; Joseph McConnell, S. W.; Rich- 
ard W. Bushnell, J. W. 

After changing places of meeting several 
times, this lodge finally secured a nicely-fitted 
and well-adorned hall in Casper Voll's brick 
block, which was subsequently destroyed by 
fire, the lodge losing everything, but were 
happily insured for money enough to enable 
them to furnish another hall on a more limited 
scale, but comfortable and convenient, with all 
the requisite appurtenances. The present offi- 
cers are G. M. D. Gregory, W. M.; James T. 
Hosford, S. W.; Robert T. Robertson, J. W.; 
Lyman C. Clark, Chaplain ; Henry Bradley, 
Treasurer ; William P. Reed, Secretary ; John 
McWilliams, S. D.; Joseph A. Norris, J. D.; 
George Cary, S. S.; James Funston, J. S.; Ed- 
ward Morgan, Tiler. 

LIST OP BUSINESS MEN AND HOUSES. 

Thomas Hosford, Mayor. 
John C. Neltuer, general store. 
Wiant & Stevens, general store. 
J. E. West, general store. 
Reed & Stark, general store. 
Charles Norris, furniture. 
0. C. Woodworth, groceries. 
Prof. Crossman, groceries. 
T. V. Otis, hardware and tin. 
C. W. Gary, hardware and tin. 



W INFIELD 


TOWNSHIP. 267 


Mrs. George Bviggs, restaurant. 


James Fisk, carpenter and joiner. 


Clinton Neltner, restaurant and baker}'. 


M. Kipp, carpenter and joiner. 


Thomas Barfield, restaurant. 


Nelson H. Lyon, painter and glazier. 


Mrs. F. Coart, milliner and dressmaking. 


William Foster, painter and glazier. 


Miss S. Derapsey, milliner and dressmaking. 


Crist Wahl, Jr., painter and glazier. 


L. Renspergher, shoemaker. 


John Groves, painter and glazier. 


Charles J. Schlupp, shoemaker. 


Charles Goodin, painter and glazier. 


Joseph Schalz, shoemaker. 


John C. Neltnor, nurseryman, etc. 


Frederick Thoro, saloon. 


D. Wilson, glove and mitten manufacturer. 


Crist Wahl, saloon. 


Andrew Murphy, stone and brick mason. 


Mrs. Hahn, saloon. 


John S. Barber, stone and brick mason. 


Frank Whitton, butcher. 


Frank Donehoe, stone and brick mason. 


Charles Gorham, stock-buyer. 


John Almindinger, stone and brick mason. 


Abram Pierson, stock-buyer. 


Dr. W. J. Wilson, general insurance agent. 


Weger & Bradly, grain and stock-buyers. 


L. C. Clark, life insurance agent. 


Benjamin Howarth, livery and sale stable. 


Albert Wiant, Government gauger. 


John Sargent, liver}' and sale stable. 


L. H. Manville, mail agent. 


John E. Standize, farm machinery, etc. 


John E. West, music teacher, etc. 


Charles Clark, lumber, coal, lime, salt, etc. 


James Lenwyck, railroad blacksmith. 


Frederick Weger, jeweler. 


Thomas McGraw, railroad blacksmith. 


Henry Boyer, barber. 


S. P. Tillotson, railroad carpenter. 


Joseph Brown, barber. 


M. A. Heiser, boiler-maker. 


William Ripley, hotel. 


Robert Robertson, machinist. 


David Springer, hotel. 


John Maiden, machinist. 


Benjamin Whitmarsh, boarding house. 


John Neibergher, machinist. 


B. T. Wilcox, physician and surgeon. 


Capt. D. Hull, machinist. 


A. C. Cotton, physician and surgeon. 


Cheese factory, 5,000 pounds of milk re- 


G. L. Madison, physician and surgeon. 


ceived daily; 400 pounds of cheese and 150 


E. L. Hill, Congregational pastor. 


pounds of butter made daily. John Newman, 


W. H. Holmes, Methodist pastor. 


proprietor. 


William Hottendorf, German Evangelical 




Church pastor. 


TURNER RESIDENTS DOING BUSINESS IN CHI- 


Father Dominick Spellman, Catholic priest. 


CAGO. 


Conrad Jaeger, blacksmith. 


Albert Wiant, Government gauger. 


Charles Jourdon, blacksmith. 


L. H. Manville, mail agent. 


P. A. Elsemis, wagon-maker. 


L. C. Clark, life insurauce agent. 


Herain Vergil, carpenter and joiner. 


Clarence Bradly, clerk. 


Albeit Hills, carpenter and joiner. 


Henry Boyer, Jr., clerk. 


John Norris & Sou, carpenter and joiner. 


D. Ahern, salesman. 


Robert Norris, carpenter and joiner. 


John McWilliaius, salesman. 


Augustus Norris, carpenter and joiner. 


Dr. A. Colton, physician, etc. 


Henry Keller, carpenter and joiner. 


John E. West, music teacher. 


Anthony Deitch, carpenter and joiner. 


N. Allen. 


Anthony Gertz, carpenter and joiner. 


C. K. Saunders. 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



PUBLICATIONS. 

The Fruit and Flower Groxoer and Vegetable 
Gardener, published quarterly, three numbers 
in one, by John C. Neltner, Turner Junction, 
111. 

Turner Junction News, published weekly, by 
J. Russell Smith. 

WINFIELD. 

This town grew up as a station on the old 
Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, which 
passed through the place in 1849, and John 
Hodges was the first station agent. A store 
was soon after opened at the place, by Andrew 
Vandusen, who also kept a tavern. January 
25, 1853, a plat of the village, made b}- James 
P. Doe, was recorded as the village of Frede- 
ricksburg, situate upon Sections 12 and 13, 
Town 39, Range 9. The present depot was 
built in 1854, at which time there was an ex- 
tensive brewery at the place, and a lumber 
yard — the latter kept by John Collins. Much 
freight at that time came to and from the place, 
to and from Naperville, it being their nearest 
railroad point. Gilbert S. Higgins is the pres- 
ent Postmaster; Adalbert Jewell, station agent, 
and the following are the names of the present 
business firms, etc. : 

General stores, George Fehrman & Son ; M. 
Hills. 



Tavern, John Casper. 

Insurance agent and Notary Public, Jacob 
Miller. 

Tailor, Nicholas Berker. 

Blacksmith, Henry Hamschmidt. 

Carpenter, William Hastert. 

Wagon-maker, Valentine Weinrich. 

Boot and shoe-maker, Anton Schmitt. 

Winfield Creamery, consumes 6,000 pounds 
of milk, manufactures 120 pounds of butter and 
425 pounds of cheese daily on an average. 

Parish priest, Rev. John Wiedenhold. 

Church of St John the Baptist. — This church 
was built in 1867 by the people of Winfield. It 
was first attended to by one of the Benedictine 
Fathers, from St. Joseph's Church, Chicago, 
until 1869, March 1. After this date, Rev. 
Father John Wiederhold was appointed as pas- 
tor of this church, who keeps the pulpit there 
up to this time. The parish numbered, at its 
beginning, about thirty families, but at present 
the number is about eighty-five. In course of 
time, the church, being only 45x30 feet long and 
twenty-seven feet high, became too small for the 
still growing congregation, and in 1879 they 
found it necessary to enlarge the church to the 
extension of 100 feet. In February, 1880, it 
was completed, and duly blessed on the 2d of 
that month by Very Rev. J. McMullen. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP — PIONEER LIFE OF ITS SETTLERS — CORN bR ON WHISKY AND ITS RESULT- 
INDIAN BURIAL — INDIAN IMPORTUNITY — WOLVES ON THE RAMPAGE — GOING TO 
MILL— FATHER KIMBALL— PIONEER SCHOOL— GIMLETVILLE— ITS HOPES 
DASHED TO THE GROUND— HILLOCKS, SPAS AND RIVULETS 
—WAYNE STATION — RELICS OF THE STONE AGE. 



THREE years before the battle of Tippe- 
canoe was fought by Gen. Harrison, Rob- 
ert Y. Benjamin was born. His father, Daniel 
Benjamin was a brave old pioneer who had set- 
tled on the north side of the Little Scioto Riv- 
er, in Ohio, opposite where Columbus now is, 



and here was the place, then amidst Indian 
alarms and the rough-and-tumble conditions of 
border life, where he raised his family, one of 
whom, Robert Y., is now a citizen of Wayne — 
the first who came to the place and settled — in 
mind and body still sound, and sevent3'-four. 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 



269 



Daniel Benjamin, the father, with his four sons 
— Andrew, John Joseph and Robert Y. — and 
about ten other families, all came to the place 
together with their own teams, from Ohio, ar- 
riving at what is now Wayne on the 12th of 
Ma\, 1834. All these families, except the 
Benjamins and Joseph Vale, whose family was 
one of the party, settled on the Fox River. 
But Robert Y. was attracted to the place where 
he still lives by the famous spring that gushes 
out of the ground from beneath the shadow of 
the beautiful grove at the place, and there he 
set down his stakes ; moreover, he says his wife 
was tired of traveling and liked the location. 
This is a point in favor of female counsel, 
and poorer ones have been made in favor of 
female suffrage, for Mr. Benjamin and his wife 
made a success of their attempt. 

The rest of the family settled not far distant, 
on claims from nature's amplitude of prairie 
and grove as free as it was inviting. Besides 
the Benjamin's Mr. Vale also settled, a little to 
the west of them. Among the necessities which 
he 1 nought to the new country in his wagon 
way a barrel of whisky (a questionable one) of 
which Mr. Benjamin says he never gave away a 
drop. He was the only one of the company 
who laid in a stock of this emollient, and may 
be regarded as the first monopolist that ever 
practiced that modern art in Wayne. Here he 
he had a corner on whisky, and shortly after the 
settlement of the place, a band of 300 Pottawat- 
omies came to the grove and encamped. He 
was now bull in the whisky market, having it 
all his own way. At whatever price he sold it, 
Mr. Banjamin says, a riot among the Indians 
was soon manifest, and one of their number 
was killed. 

Next came the interment of the fallen sav- 
age. He was dressed up in his best blanket 
and leggings, and placed in a sitting position on 
the ground, his body erect v his head upright 
and ornate with feathers. Thus tableaued his 
friends cut some saplings from the grove and 



built a pen around him, cob house fashion, and 
left him provided with a bow and arrow, and 
an extra pair of leggings for future use in the 
happy hunting grounds. His frail tomb was on 
Mr. Benjamin's land and was frequently visited 
by him out of curiosity. He did not disturb 
the corpse 

" In the grave where an Indian had laid him," 

but the prairie wolves had no respect for In- 
dian rites, and soon pressed between the poles 
that illy protected his clay, and made many a 
late supper from it under cover of night. Sub- 
sequently the Vale boys set the skull up for a 
target to shoot at. The wolves carried away 
the rest of the bones to their lair for Christmas 
toys for their young whelps to play with. 
" Alas, poor Yorick !" 

Mr. Giles Billings and John Laughliu came 
to the settlement the following autumn, and 
soon after him John Rinehaidt, Mr. Simpson 
and Patrick Scott. The next year, 1835, an 
officer appeared at Mr. Benjamin's house ; he 
was from an obscure town in the east, named 
Chicago, the same slab city through which Mr. 
Benjamin had passed the year before, and had 
then failed to attract his favorable notice, but 
now the place was coming up in the scale. A 
grand jury was to be impaneled there, and Mr. 
Benjamin was wanted to sit as one of its mem- 
bers. The officer served the summons, mount- 
ed his horse and vanished in the tall prairie 
grass, and Mr. Benjamin set about getting 
ready to obe}' the call. The next morning he 
started on foot, keeping his course due east by 
the compass. The soil was spongy, and noon 
found him toiling through the trackless flats 
that border the east margin of Salt Creek. He 
was hungry, but relief soon came, [t was roast 
potatoes and a cup often, on which he dined at 
the hospitable home of Maj. Giles, who lived 
two miles west of the Desplaines River, with 
his latch string always hanging on the outside 
of the door. This was the only house on his 
way to Chicago, along what was then known 



270 



HISTORY OF DU I'AGE COUNTY. 



as the St. Charles trail. On Mr. Benjamin's 
return he took the precaution to fill his pockets 
with ginger snaps or some other kinds of bak- 
ery delectables, which Chicago had then begun 
to make for Indian traffic or hungry footmen, 
who had long stretches of prairie marsh to 
cross. 

Of other settlers whose pioneer experiences 
represented the times, were the families of Solo- 
mon Dunham and Edmund Bartlett. 

Both were from the State of New York, and 
both arrived at Chicago in company with each 
other, on the 24th of March, 1835, in their own 
teams all the way. Here they rented a small 
house on Randolph street, not far from the 
store of Mr. Dale, the pioneer store-keeper of 
Chicago. The house was a log cabin, with but 
one room, over which was a loft, reached by a 
ladder through an aperture in its loosely laid 
floor. Into this cabin, the two families were 
crowded as a temporary abode, while the two 
heads of them — Mr. Dunham and Mr. Bartlett 
— started with the team westward to hunt up a 
location on which to settle. 

Mrs. Dunham had two children, and Mrs. 
Bartlett six, making, with themselves, ten in 
the family after their husbands had started on 
their mission. The two men threaded their 
winding way around the sloughs till they reached 
the fertile prairies on the fringe of the timber 
that skirts the eastern banks of Fox River, just 
west of the present site of Wayne Station, and 
here they each bought claims to lands. Mr. 
Bartlett still lives on the same now ; but Mr. 
Dunham died in 1865. Having set their stakes 
here, the two pioneers returned to their families 
in Chicago ; paid up the rent of their wretched 
tenement ($1.25 for the ten days they had 
occupied it), and all started together for their 
new homes. On arriving there, the first thing 
to be done was to build a house, and, of course, 
a log house, for the}' had neither means nor 
material to build a frame ; and Mrs. Bartlett 
says the one she and her family lived in was 



very small. The bed was in one corner, and 
the fire-place in one end, with the chimney out- 
side, and yet she sometimes played the hostess 
to travelers overnight, who managed to find a 
spot on the floor not occupied by trundle beds, 
on which the}' could stretch out full length, 
with perhaps a horse saddle for a pillow, or 
some other makeshift. 

The first year they raised nothing, and Mr. 
Bartlett was obliged to go to Chicago with his 
team for provisions, a trip which required three 
days' time. While thus left alone, except with 
the children, one night an Indian came to her 
door, entered without knocking, according to 
their custom, and threw his baggage down in 
one corner of the room, " Me stay all night ! 
Me good Indian ! Me no hurt you !" said 
the red intruder, and all her entreaties could 
not dissuade him from his purpose. Mrs. Bart- 
lett had to accept the situation, and laid down 
on her bed, while her red guest snoozed himself 
to sleep, not ten feet away from her. 

He was a good Indian who wanted a night's 
rest, and why should he sleep outdoors when 
there was a house to sleep in, reasoned the hon- 
est child of nature ; and let us be charitable 
enough toward him to believe that had he un- 
derstood the improprieties of his demands as 
civilians do, he would not have insisted on 
lodging in the house when a woman was alone 
in it. On another occasion, when Mrs. Bartlett 
was also alone, a young red rascal came rush- 
ing into her cabin, crying out, " Bad Indian 
coming ! Kill ! " and immediately fled into the 
adjacent grove. Sure enough there were five 
Indians rapidly approaching her house, on the 
well-frequented Indian trail that passed it, as 
hard as the) - could gallop on their ponies. On 
arriving, the} - could easily see that she was ter- 
rified at their presence, and the first thing they 
did was to allay her fears by pulling off some 
of their trinkets and giving them to her chil- 
dren, and otherwise exhibiting tokens of kind- 
ness. This done, they inquired for the first 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 



271 



Indian who had visited her, and she told them 
the course he had taken, and that he had called 
them bad Indians. At this they laughed heart- 
ily, and informed her that they were following 
him to get a pony he had stolen. They then 
left in hot pursuit of the fugitive. Sometimes 
large numbers of Indians would encamp near 
the house and remain a day or two, but never 
did an} - harm, except to sometimes take what 
salt they wanted to eat wherever the}' could 
find it ; but to do them justice, Mrs. Bartlett 
says that if they ever took any they soon 
brought its equivalent in value in fish caught 
from the Fox River or venison shot from the 
groves, and many a quarter of this delicious 
meat did the Indians present her family. The 
Indians were very fond of Mrs. Bartlett's bread, 
and one day, seeing two loaves of it on her 
table, took one of them, and gave her a butcher 
knife in return, saying at the same time, " Me 
got two knives, you got two loaves. Me give 
you one knife and take one loaf." She found 
the knife very useful, and kept it many }'ears. 
Mrs. Bartlett said nothing against the Indians, 
but felt glad when they were removed. The 
country was alive with wolves for the first 
few years, and they continually came howling 
around the house like thieving dogs after 
bones, and it was no unusual thing for them 
to come to her door at night and quarrel 
together over bacon rinds or other food thrown 
out. 

The early settlers here took their first corn to 
mill at Bailey Hobson's grist-mill, near Naper- 
ville, usually carrying it in a bag slung across 
the back of a horse. 

It was a lonesome way, and the wolves often 
followed the horse and rider all the way home, 
if late in the evening ; and sometimes, if they 
came too close, the rider took out one of the 
stirrups of the saddle to defend himself with 
in case of an attack, which weapon would be 
quite effective for close quarters, the iron stir- 
rup with the straps attached.to it working like 



a sluug-shot. On one occasion, one of the early 
settlers, late in the afternoon, while returning 
from some distant place with his horses and 
wagon, was followed by a pack of these hungry 
prowlers, who actually tried to leap into the 
hind end of his wagon, and might have done it 
had he not repelled their charge with his whip. 
There are yet a few of these animals sneaking 
about in the groves adjacent, and six of them 
were killed in 1881. 

In the spring succeeding the first winter 
spent at this new settlement, there was a great 
want of potatoes, and one of the settlers was 
sent with a team to the Wabash River in Indi- 
ana, to get seed to plant, which was the nearest 
place where they could be bought. During 
their first year at the place, they had been de- 
prived of this healthful esculent, and when 
they finally got a supply, no table delicacy 
could be more delicious. Daniel and Mark 
Dunham, both now well-known residents of the 
vicinity, are sons of Solomon Dunham, who 
came with Mr. Bartlett, but, as before stated, 
Mr. Solomon Dunham is not living, and Mr. 
Bartlett, though living, feels the effect of eighty- 
one years, and has forgotten much of his long 
and eventful life, but his wife is in the full vigor 
of her mental and physical powers, though the 
mother of ten children, and a monument of the 
health-giving air of Du Page County, and to 
her is the writer indebted for the foregoing 
pioneer reminiscences. Ira Albro, a present 
resident of Wayne, came to where he now lives 
in the autumn succeeding the arrival of Mr. 
Dunham and Mr. Bartlett, and shared the laud- 
able ambitions with the toils of pioneer life 
with the peers of his age. 

Samuel Brand, Mr. Styles, Mr. Whaplea 
(father of Mrs. F. Hull, of Wheaton), Daniel 
Roundy (uncle of Capt. Roundy, of Winfield), 
Samuel Talmadge, the Whittacres, the Ker- 
shaws, Mr. Hemingway, W. Hammond, Ezra 
Gilbert, J. V. King, Charles and Wesley Gray. 
Reuben Walpole, Joseph Davis, W. Farnsworth. 



212 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



Joseph McMillen (who established the first post 
office at the place at McMillen's Grove, Daniel 
Lyman, John Smith (father of Mrs. Colvin, of 
Wheaton), Luther F. Sanderson, Horace Reed, 
Aaron Wood, James McCabe, Mr. Hilling 
(who subsequently died of cholera at St. j 
Charles), Orin Higgins, Thomas Morgan, Lu- 
ther Pierce, Joel Wiant and James Davis all 
came to the settlement between the years 1835 
and 1837. 

In the latter part of 1837, William Kimball, 
a native of Vermont, came to the place. He 
was a Methodist class leader and preacher " to 
the manner born," and here was a field for his 
clerical learning. He built a log cabin for a 
family domicile ; but, in default of any other 
place for divine worship, it became also a rally- 
ing place from whence to dispense the Gospel, 
and thither settlers gathered, even from five or 
six miles distant on foot, on horseback, and 
with ox teams, to hear Father Kimball preach. 
He, with the assistance of his neighbors, built 
a log schoolhouse the next year, which served 
also for a church, thereby giving the family of 
Elder Kimball, consisting of a wife and eleven 
children, more sea-room at home on Sundays. 
John Kershaw, brother of A. Kershaw, of 
Wayne, was the first male teacher ill this pio- 
neer temple of science, and Miss Julia Talmadge 
was the first female teacher. She now lives in 
Aurora, the wife of Mr. Weaver. 

It was an event of no small magnitude wheii 
this school was established, and its reputation 
might be envied by some of our modern col- 
leges. It was a subscription school, and was 
patronized for a radius of four or five miles, 
some distant ones taking board near by to avail 
themselves of its teachings. This settlement 
then belonged to the Du Page Circuit, as the 
Methodists had named it. After the original 
Fox River Circuit had been divided into two. 
Elder Wilcox was the first circuit preacher sent 
here by the Presiding Elder, and Rev. — . Gad- 
ding the second. But before either of these 



came, Father Kimball had led the way as al- 
ready stated. 

The first hopes of a village in this region 
found a rallying point at Wayne Centre. Will- 
iam K. Guild, now a citizen of Wheaton, settled 
there in 1839. The incipient town was on the 
old army trail, and the land around was at- 
tractive. A store was opened at the place by 
Abner Guild and James A. Nind, in 1844, 
and, the inevitable blacksmith shop, by 
John Sherman, about the same time, who 
was succeeded in the muscular art by E. 
Eckhart. 

Wayne Centre had by this time outgrown her 
nickname of Gimletville, and the prospect was 
reasonable that she might become a moderate 
sized village, like her nearest neighbor to the 
south — Naperville. Under this impression, she 
must have a church. Accordingly, one was 
organized, first as a branch of the St. Charles 
Church, which was Congregational, that being 
the religion that most of the settlers had brought 
with them to the place. It became an inde- 
pendent organization soon afterward, and held 
services in the schoolhouse till 1852, at which 
time they had completed a church of their 
own, its membership numbering thirty. Rev. 
Ebenezer Raymond was their first settled 
pastor, who was succeeded by Rev. L. E. 
Sykes. Rev. E. W. Kellogg was the next 
pastor, who was succeeded b} - his sou, L. H. 
Kellogg. 

The influence of the railroad which pierces 
the central portions of the county was now 
fully demonstrated. It had been running three 
years, and while towns on its line were growing, 
those remote from it were decaying. Under 
these discouragements, the church in Wayne 
w;i^ sold and removed to a society in Bartlett, 
just over the line in Cook County, in 1879, 
and Wayne Centre preserves nothing of its 
early hopes but its name. 

The township of Wayne is in the extreme 
northwestern part of the county, and is known 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 



273 



by Congressional description as Township 40, 
Range 9. Its surface is quite diversified, being 
rather more uneven than that of any other 
township in the county. It has a large num- 
ber of living springs, several small groves of 
timber and many transplanted trees and or- 
chards, giving its whole area the appearance of 
a timbered country. 

The West Fork of the Du Page River has its 
main source in the northeastern corner of the 
township, and waters its eastern portions, but 
a small head tributary of this stream flows from 
Bloomingdale. The little inlets and springs 
from which this stream is made up are nu- 
merous, and present a pleasing landscape as 
they creep along beneath a tangle of vegetation 
toward the larger channel, which is more con- 
stant here, near its fountain-head, than it is 
farther down in extreme low water. A saw- 
mill was erected on it, on Section 14, by Jonas 
Blank in 1840, who died with typhoid fever' 
soon afterward. 

The farms are large, and those who own 
them ma} 7 generally be called wealthy. Fine 
blooded cattle, horses and sheep are a specialty 
with them, but milk and the dairy business is 
a growing interest. 

The Chicago & St. Paul Railroad touches its 
northeastern corner, and the Chicago & North- 
Western Railroad passes through its southwest- 
ern portions, and from the elevations of their 
tracks, reported by the engineers of the two 
roads, the, average elevation of the surface of 
the township above Lake Michigan is estimated 
by the writer to be about one hundred and 
seventy feet. 

By the school report of 1882, it has eight 
school districts and 351 persons between the 
ages of six and twenty -one years, of whom 218 
are enrolled in school lists. Its contiguity to 
Elgin makes villages unnecessary in the town- 
ship, and there are none except a small one 
named Wayne Station, on the Chicago & North- 
western Railway. 



It sprang into existence when the railroad 
passed through in 1849, at which place Solo- 
mon Dunham was the first Postmaster, and 
Egbert Adams opened the first store, which 
was in the same building now occupied by H. 
Campbell. 

The following lists show the business men in 
the place, in 1870 and 1882 : 

BUSINESS MEN OK WAYNE IN 1870. 

Dry goods and groceries, Campbell & 
Brother, Adam M. Glos. 

Carriage factory, John Arndt. 

Boots and shoes, Hiram Adams. 

Blacksmiths, Vincent Smith, Hasbrook Lo- 
zier. 

Tin and hardware, James Campbell. 

Pressed hay. Case & Arndt. 

Postmaster and station agent, A. D. Trull. 

BUSINESS MEN OF WAYNE IN 1882. 

Dry goods and groceries, Adam M. Glos, 
H. Campbell. 

Wagons and carriages, John Arndt. 

Boot and shoe maker, Peter Carlson. 

Blacksmiths. William Eggleston and Has- 
brook Lozier. 

Tin shop, James Campbell. 

Station agent, H. W. Hubbard. 

Postmaster, A. D. Trull. 

American Express Agent, Adam M. Glos. 

Justice of the Peace. Adam M. Glos. 

Cheese factory, three miles east of station, 
owned by C. W. Gould, of Elgin. 

It is due to science to state that Adam M. 
Glos has been collecting Indian relics for the 
past thirty years in Du Page and Kane Coun- 
ties, a great many from Wayne, AV infield and 
Naperville Townships, which consists of stone 
arrows, all sizes and patterns ; also stone axes 
in great variety, and many other relics of the 
stone age. Mr. Glos has explored a great 
many mounds along the Fox River Valley, 
none being found in Du Page County. 



•J 7-1 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



There is a Congregational Church at Wayne 
Station, for which thanks are due to William 
Saj'er. 

THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 

This was organized February 18, 1871. Five 
members withdrew their names from the Wayne 
Centre Church, and with the aid of thirteen on 
profession of faith it was organized, with a 
membership of eighteen in number, as follows : 
Simeon Barber, Hulda L. Barber, Albert W. 
Moffatt, Alice Moffatt, Elizabeth Smith. By 
profession : Julia Trull, Cordelia Pratt, Ro- 
land Hall, Esther Hall, Rhoda Wolcott, Catha- 
rine Dolph, Nancy Dolph, Harriett Lozier, Mary 
Smith, John Arndt, Ellen Arndt, Janette Pix- 
ley and Robert Carswell. 



ONTARIOVILLE. 

This is a station on the Chicago and St. Paul 
Railroad, about one-half of which is in Wayne, 
situated on Section 1. 

It was platted by William Lee9burg April 
7, 1874. It affords excellent facilities for 
shipping the produce of Wayne to Chicago, 
especially milk, which is an increasing interest 
in the vicinity. The following is a list of the 
business men of the place : 

E. Bartlett, station agent and lumber dealer. 

M. Debker, Postmaster and general store. 

Fred Freeman, blacksmith. 

Fred Olendorf, general store. 

C. Ackerman, cheese factory. 

C. Humbrocht, hotel. 



CHAPTER XV. 



BLOOMINGDALE TOWNSHIP— INDIAN BURYING-GROUNDS— THE MEAOHAMS— PIONEER BURIALS- 
EARLY KOAD DISTRICTS— SCENE IN A SUNDAY SERVICE— TRAGICAL TERMINATION OF A 
LAW SUIT — SCHOOL DISTRICTS — PETRIFACTIONS — BLOOMINGDALE VILLAGE- 
CHURCHES— BUSINESS MEN OF BLOOMINGDALE— ROSELLE— ITS BUSINESS 
MEN— MEACHAM— STRANGE PHENOMENON ON KELLEY'S FARM. 



r I ^HIS is the central northern township of 
-*- Du Page County, situated in Township 
40, Range 1. Its average elevation above 
Lake Michigan is above that of any other 
town in the county, as is shown by its being 
the sources of both the forks of the Du Page 
River, and also the source of a western tribu- 
tary of Salt Creek. 

Its general elevation above Lake Michigan 
is estimated to be about 180 feet, except in 
its lower portions. A beautiful grove occu- 
pies the southern parts of Sections 10, 11 
and 12 and the northern portions of Sections 
13, 14 and a corner of 15. This grove at- 
tracted the attention of the aboriginal inhab- 
itants of the country as a refuge to fly to 
during the nipping frosts of winter, and also 



the heat of sunimer, and here they made 
offerings to appease the supposed wrath of 
the Great Spirit, and here their rights of 
sepulture were devoutly performed in their 
own barbaric way, evidences of which are 
still extant and afford speculations for the 
archaeologist. Their name for the grove was 
Penneack, which in their tongue was the 
name of an esculent root which they used for 
food and which grew there. What the root 
was the writer does not know. It might have 
been ginseng. The Indians in their straits 
have often lived on worse fare than this. 
Whatever the root was, the Indians made an- 
nual autumn harvests of it for two or three 
years after white settlements had begun at 
the place which was on the 11th day of 



BLOOMINGDALE TOWNSHIP. 



275 



March, 1833, when Silas, Henry and Lyman 
Meacham, three brothers from Rutland 
County, Vt., built a log cabin there. They 
had traversed the broad face of the country 
that intervened between this spot and their 
home with their own teams. 

The ground was covered with snow, and 
everything on the broad face of nature 
around, except the grove, looked desolate and 
forbidding, but here was a glad retreat and 
here their stakes were set. 

The Meachams were men of broad-gauge 
charity — could fellowship their red neighbors 
and lived on good terms with them for the 
few years that they remained at the place 
previous to their removal, and the trust and 
confidence extended to them was never dis- 
honored. Their nearest neighbors were the 
settlements of Jude Gary, Lyman Butterfield 
and H. T. "Wilson, near the present corners 
of Milton. Winfield and Lisle Townships — 
a distance of about ten miles. The follow- 
ing autumn after their first settlement, Mrs. 
Lyman Meacham died. There was no ma- 
terial at hand wherewith to make her coffin, 
except the wagon box. This was taken apart, 
and the boards of which it was made recon- 
structed into a coffin to receive the remains 
of her who had come to the place in the ve- 
hicle, so soon to serve her for this last 
purpose. In the autumn of the same year, 
Maj. Skinner came to the new settlement, 
and a young mechanic came with him, whose 
name has not been preserved, but he died 
shortly after his arrival, and was buried 
in a coffin made of boards riven from a forest 
tree and dressed with a plane. 

The next years, 1834 and 1835, Daniel D. 
Noble, Capt. E. Kinney, Isaac Kinney, Noah 
Stevens, David Bangs, Elias Maynard and 
Harry Woodworth came to the place. Cupid 
came soon afterward as a regular immigrant 
to settle in the country, and drove the first 



stake of his claim through the heart of young' 
Noble, healing the wound by making a simi- 
lar impression on Miss Sybil Stephens, and 
the priest did the rest by the usual ceremo- 
nial. No wedding cards were printed. 

As settlements increased, public highways 
were necessary. The old army trail road, 
which passed along in its westerly course 
south of the grove, was older than history, 
for, when Scott's army traveled over it, the 
track had hitherto been known as an Indian 
trail, leading from Chicago to the great Win- 
nebago village, where Beloit, Wis., now 
stands. But this road only went in one di- 
rection, and roads leading to neighboring 
settlements were soon projected by the au- 
thorities of Cook County, in which this set- 
tlement then was. Road districts were laid 
out, and this settlement and the settlements 
at Warrenville were in the same district, un- 
der the charge of an official who was called a 
Roadmaster. 

The neighbors all agreed pretty well to- 
gether, but still the inexorable law demanded 
that they must have a Justice of the Peace 
to settle difficulties that might arise, and 
Lyman Meacham was elected to this honor- 
able office at their voting-place, which was 
Elk Grove, about six miles to the northeast, 
in the present town of the same name in Cook 
County. 

In 1836, Peter Northrup, now a resident of 
Wheaton, came to the place, and the same 
year Deacon Elijah Hough and family Ro- 
selle, one of his sons, since so widely known, 
was then a youth of sixteen, and Cornelia A., 
his daughter, a girl of ten years. She is now 
the wife of Hackaliah Brown, of Wheaton. 

Moses B. Elliott came the same year, and 
large numbers soon came in to avail them- 
selves of the advantages of the healthy loca- 
tion and cheap lands that abounded here, 
among whom was L. E. Landon, now a citizen 



276 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUXTY. 



of Wheaton, and Waters Northrup, now liv- 
ing in Bloomingdale. Deacon Allen Hills 
came in 1840, with his four sons — Erasmus 
O. and Nubria, who are now living at Chicago ; 
Hileman, who still lives at Bloomingdale, and 
H. B., who died at Wheaton in 1881. Be- 
sides these was one daughter — Almeda, who 
married T. B. Stevens, an early settler at the 
place, and the same year Dr. Parker Sedg- 
wick and S. P. Sedgwick, his son, now a 
physician in Wheaton, and Hiram Cody, 
father of Judge Cody, of Naperville, came to 
this settlement. 

We have now a thriving colony of relig- 
iously inclined men, among whom were two 
Deacons, and, of course, divine services 
promptly came in, and the following descrip- 
tion of one of them, written by Mr. Bronson 
Hills, and published, before his death, in the 
Wheaton paper, is a spirited description of 
one of them : 

" Sunday was quite generally observed by 
the settlers attending meeting at the little log 
schoolhouse. We must go, of course, with 
the rest to see what is done. * * The 
seats have no backs. They are made of logs 
split and turned the flat side up, the face of 
them bearing the marks of the as with which 
they were scored and hewed. Twenty or 
thirty, including children, constitute the au- 
dience, with an addition of about as many 
dogs as men. Curiosity to see our new 
neighbors is the principal item of interest 
now, especially to see the young ladies. That 
trim-looking girl, with large gray eyes and 
jet black hair, is not handsome, but there is 
something peculiar about her looks that in- 
duces one to look that way again. * * 
But it is meeting time. Call in your wan- 
dering thoughts. The minister has come and 
is reading the opening hymn. A venerable 
gray-haired man arises and announces 'Mear' 
as the tune to be sung. He seems to be cast- 



ing about for a key to the tune. He has no 
tuning-fork, but very soon we hear a hum — m. 
Satisfied he is right, he commences the 
hymn; all join in singing with a gusto, when 
lo! half way through the first line the leader 
stops. The audience sing on, but he has 
gone back for a better pitch, and, starting 
the piece again, he is coming on with a 
choir of one. The girls blush, the boys 
giggle, the elderly and pious people trying 
all the while to look grave. The situation 
calls for a compromise. For the sake of 
charity, the audience yield, go back and join 
him, for his deafness was the cause of the 
jargon. The sermon was jiassably interest- 
ing, and was only disturbed by a dog fight or 
two." 

Every one familiar with pioneer life will 
acknowledge the fidelity with which Mr. Hills 
has described the early meetings, but there 
was purpose in these first ministers, deacons 
and laymen, not lacquered with pretentious 
formula. Virtue had a high standard then, 
but desperate motives, as if by some freak 
of the moral law, lurked in the secret re- 
cesses of a few moody hearts and soon cul- 
minated in a scene of blood. 

THE KENT TRAGEDY. 

Dr. Meacham, the first settler at the pres- 
ent site of Bloomingdale, in 1833, made a 
claim on what became Sections 14 and 15, 
built a house on Section 14, and leased both 
sections to Milton Kent, who came to the 
place in 1835 from the State of New York. 
While Mr. Kent held this lease, he had made 
a claim in Sections 10 and 11, but erected 
his buildings on the land he had leased of 
Mr. Meacham. They consisted of a frame 
house and barn designed for tavern-keeping, 
occupying but a small portion of the leased 
land, which portion Mr. Kent said that 
Meacham had given him. Before the expira- 



BLOOMINGDALE TOWNSHIP. 



277 



tion of the lease, Mr. Kent had sold the 
land, or rather, his claim to it, to George W. 
Green, of Chicago. 

At the expiration of the lease, which was 
in 1837, Mr. Green demanded possession of 
the property of Mr. Kent, which was refused. 
As already stated, Kent had erected his tav- 
ern buildings on the property, which, if not 
at the time in dispute, was liable to be, inas- 
much as he had only a lease of the premises. 
Albeit, let it not been forgotten that none of 
the parties yet held any claim to the property, 
which the United States Government recog- 
nized, but the State of Illinois had passed an 
act guaranteeing to those who first took pos- 
session of public lands and made improve- 
ments on them, could hold them, provided 
they paid for them at government price when 
offered for sale. 

Meacham now, in order to fulfill his con- 
tract of sale with Green, was obliged to bring 
a suit of ejectment against Kent, which he 
did, and the court confirmed the title to 
Meacham, who held the improvements, also, 
that Kent had put on the land, consisting of 
the tavern buildings. 

The next thing was to dispossess Kent. 
This was done in the spring of 1840 by the 
Sheriff of Du Page County, who called in to 
bis assistance several men, of whom Thomas 
Muir, a young Scotchman living in the neigh- 
borhood, was one. In giving the writer in- 
formation of the affair, Mr. Muir speaks of 
the two accomplished and beautiful daugh- 
ters of Mr. Kent and the unpleasant task al- 
lotted to him in removing their toilet furni- 
ture from their rooms, they, meantime, pleas- 
antly inviting him to join them in a game of 
ball, but the law was inexorable, and he, im- 
pervious to their attractions, obeyed the or. 
ders of the Sheriff. 

The ejected family now moved their goods 
to a grove about thirty rods distant, and 



piled up the furniture for a sort of wall and 
overspread these walls with canvas to make 
a temporary habitation. Night came on with 
its glooms, and the Kents determined on ven- 
geance. 

Besides the father, who was a stanch 
old man, F. L. Kent, his son, and James 
Wakeman, who had married one of his daugh- 
ters, and a Mr. Turnbull, who subsequently 
married another of them, were ail in council 
together. A quit-claim was drawn up, ready 
for Green to sign, and they intended to force 
him to do it by violence, and to execute this 
purpose appeared at his door the following 
night, which was Saturday. Green had taken 
immediate possession of the house from which 
Kent had been driven, and here the battle 
was to be fought First, one of them rapped 
at the door to gain admission. This being 
refused, the door was burst open. Green 
was armed with a rifle, pistol and butcher 
knife. The first weapon was fired off, but it 
barely missed the neck of elder Kent. The 
men were now in the house, and the elder 
Kent grappled with Green. He snapped his 
pistol at him. but the hammer in the scuffle 
rubbed against his person and did not strike 
the cap with sufficient force to explode it. 
Next came the knife. Green stuck it into 
Kent's heart, and he reeled back outdoors, 
exclaiming, "I am a dead man! " Instantly 
young Kent grappled with Green, but soon 
he loosed his hold, for his antagonist thrust 
the same dagger into his back that had just 
killed the father. Green in his turn now re- 
ceived a blow over the head with a pistol, 
which brought him down and the conflict 
ended. Young Kent was not dangerously 
wounded. One of the party was left witb 
the old man, who was not vet dead, while the 
other seized Green, conducted him to the 
camp of the Kents, presented the quit-claim 
to him and he signed it; he was then brought 



278 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



back and left on the doorsteps of his house; 
his wife had fled to the neighbors to give the 
alarm, and they soon returned with her to 
the late scene of conflict. Roselle Hough 
helped dress the wounds of young Kent, and 
others helped nurse Green. Happy would it 
have been for Mrs. Green had her husband 
been killed in the encounter, for he gave her 
poison a few years later, and was tried and 
condemned to be hung for the crime, but he 
anticipated the hangman a few days by hang- 
ing himself in his cell. 

He is said by those who knew him to have 
been totally dejaraved to all sense of right, 
cruel to his wife, whom every one who knew 
esteemed, and unmerciful to everybody. 
That he once charged a spring with arsenic 
and poisoned three innocent children to drive 
their father away is well known, and Thomas 
Muir, by mistake, became one of the victims 
of this diabolical crime, barely escaping with 
his life. 

Good fellowship is almost always at flood 
tide in all new counties. Leaving one's old 
home for a new place where new associations 
are to be made, stimulates better emotions in 
average individuals and improves them in all 
the social accomplishments that make up a 
neighborhood. But there are some, even 
among pioneers, who take council only with 
sinister motives, and regard others with whom 
they may come in contact as instruments by 
which they may improve their own standing 
pecuniarily, which to them is the only meas- 
ure by which anything can be gauged. Any 
consideration that cannot be measured by 
money, or its equivalent, is a myth to them. 
When two such persons are pitted against 
each other, the result is always hostile. 
Neither have learned how to offset aggressive 
action with discriminative prudence, but act 
only on impulses, and those selfish and evil 
ones. 



These unfortunate people generally mani- 
fest about as much jmidence as a hen that 
attacks a bull dog in defense of her chickens, 
or a partisan politician who often persists in 
running for a courted office, when ordinary 
reflection ought to convince him that the peo- 
ple don't want him elected. When two such 
persons are brought into relations with each 
other, the result may be a tragedy, as it was 
in this case. Neither of the men engaged in 
it were accounted idiots, but yet it cannot be 
denied that when men do common-place kind 
of acts, or business, with as little foresight 
as they did criminal acts, they are ac- 
counted fools. It hardly need be told that 
the court did not regard the quit-claim that 
Green had signed to the property on that 
fatal night as binding. 

There are still many persons living in the 
neighborhood who were residents of the place 
at the time this tragedy occurred, and the 
shock it made to the public sense of justice 
is still fresh in their minds, though great 
moral, religious and physical changes have 
since had place. Of the two former, the 
clerical Sunday service is an index. Of the 
physical changes that have come over the 
face of nature, the drainage of low lands and 
dimunition of streams is a marked one. On 
the little rivulet then called Shaw's Creek, 
which took its rise just south of Meacham's 
Grove, Hiram Gooding erected a saw-mill in 
1844. It worked about three months annual- 
ly, but now there is not water enough in the 
little wet-weather brook to propel a saw 
mill, except during some excessive fall of 
rain sufficient to cause a flood. Fine fish 
were caught in this brook in the early day, 
such as pickerel and bass. 

As late as 1850, the southern and western 
portions of Bloomingdale Township were but 
sparsely settled, but the road from Chicago 
to Galena passed along tbe northern portions, 



BLOOMINGDALE TOWNSHIP. 



281 



and was one of the principal thoroughfares 
leading to the West, and at that time was of 
as much local importance as a railroad is in 
our day, and it gave promise of future wealth, 
which would have been realized but for the 
railroad system, which subsequently drew 
this trade and travel into other localities. 
The Chicago Pacific (now the Chicago & St. 
Paul Railroad), which was finished through 
the northwestern part of this township in 
1873, sets it now on an equal footing with 
its adjoining ones, as the railroad facilities 
for easy marketing. 

There is no waste land in the township, 
hut all of it high, rolling and fertile, afford- 
ing excellent dairy farms, to which interest 
there seems to be a tendency. There are 
twelve school districts, and, by the school 
census, 366 persons between the ages of six 
and twenty-one years. Schools are sustained 
on an average of between seven and eight 
months in the year. 

There is a cheese factory in the southeast- 
ern part of the township which consumes 
4,000 pounds of milk and makes 135 pounds 
of butter and 280 pounds of cheese daily. 
William Rathge and Fred Stuenkel, proprie- 
tors. 

The Coverdale Creamery, in the southwest 
part of the township, does a similar amount 
of business. 

Many petrifactions of nuts and various veg- 
etable forms are found in the creek that runs 
along the northern fringe of Meacham Grove. 

The village of Bloomingdale grew into ex- 
istence as a convenience for the surrounding 
farmers — a depot from whence their wants 
for store goods could be supplied. It was 
first called Meacham's Grove, and, being on 
the early stage road from Chicago to Galena, 
and eligibly located on the border of the 
grove, it had a fair prospect of becoming a 
large village. 



In 1843, there lived at the place H. Meach- 
am, Deacons Hough, Hills and Stevens; 
Moses Hoyt, who kept tavern; Levi H. Kinne, 
F. Kinney, W. Northrup (Postmaster), H. 
Woodruff, James Vint, Hileman Hills, Nu- 
bria Hills, sons of Deacon Hills, together with 
others sufficient to make a good beginning 
for a town. A mile to the east, Mr. Tupper 
kept another tavern. The site of the town is 
said to be the most elevated land of any vil- 
lage in the county, being 190 feet above 
Lake Michigan. The plat of the town bears 
date of January 11, 1845, H S. Hills, pro- 
prietor — situated on the northwest and north- 
east quarters of Section 15, Township 40, 
Range 10. About thirty-five families live in 
the village. An excellent spring of pure 
water breaks out of the ground just west of 
the village, at which place Col. Hoyt kept his 
famous tavern. 

The Congregational society of Blooming- 
dale was established August 22, 1840, and 
held their services in a log schoolhouse at 
the southeastern extremity of Meacham's 
Grove, by which name the village was first 
known. Rev. D. Rockwell and Rev. Flavel 
Bascom, who at this time live in Hinsdale, 
officiated at the ceremonies of organization. 

Mr. Rockwell was ordained as first pastor 
and remained over this charge till 1842, when 
he was succeeded by H. Colton for one year; 
B. W. Reynolds, for two years; L. Parker, 
for four years; N\ Shapley, for one year; L. 
Parker again, for three years; D. Chapman, 
for one year; H. Judd, for one or more years, 
who was succeeded by others not known to 
the writer. The society built a new church 
in 1851, and, June 13, 1852, it was dedicated, 
but the limits of their prosperity was reached 
not long after the new church edifice was oc- 
cupied. Death removed some, and others 
went West, while none came forward to take 
their places. This decimating process went 



2S? 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



on till 1879, when the church was sold to the 
Lutherans. Between two and three hundred 
members in all have been enrolled on the 
books of this church, which had a Sabbath 
school numbering once fifty, and a library of 
300 books. 

The Baptist Church of Bloomingdale was 
organized in 1841 by Rev. Joel Wheeler. It 
first numbered ten members. The next year, 
a revivalist named Morgan Edwards came to 
the place and preached with effect. Six new 
members were added to the church, but no 
regular preaching was held till Rev. P. Tay- 
lor, of Babcock's Grove, supplied them each 
alternate Sunday. 

In 1848, the society commenced building 
a church. The frame was erected and the 
question arose whether the site of the place 
chosen was destined to be the true center of 
the town. This question hung in suspense, 
and the prairie breeze whistled through the 
naked scantlings and rafters of the unfinished 
edifice while this question was being settled 
by the events of time. Finally, the locality 
was not considered a good one, the work was 
abandoned, another site selected and a church 
built in 1849. Prosperity rewarded their 
efforts, the church proved too small for their 
increasing numbers, and the society sold it 
for a schoolhouse and built a larger one in 
1855, at which time they had over one hun- 
dred members. Rev. P. Taylor was the first 
settled pastor of the church, who remained 
with them until the church was built which 
they now occupy. The number of their 
members is now about fifty. The church has 
regular preaching and a Sabbath school. 

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of 
Bloomingdale was organized in 1878, and 
the next year occupied the church which they 
bought of the Congregationalists. Rev. Gus- 
tavo Lambrecht was their first pastor, who 
was succeeded by Rev. A. B. Mysch, the 



present pastor. About thirty-five families 
belong to this society. 

The following is a list of the business and 
professional men of Bloomingdale Village : 

Brown & Verbeck, proprietors of the Bloom- 
ingdale Flax Mill, consumes 1,000 tons of 
flax straw and manufactures 600 tons of tow 
annually; thefirni employs eight mm; T. C. 
Ryan, cheese factory, employs three men, 
consumes 8,000 pounds of milk, makes fifteen 
cheeses and 240 pounds of butter daily; bed 
spring factory, by A. R. Kinne, makes 500 
bed springs annually; John Beurmaster, tai- 
lor; Robert Gates, C. Eden, wagon-makers; 
John Shank, George Wallis, William Sleep, 
Elijah Bond, blacksmiths; O. A. Verbeck, 
Bradford Hills, carpenters; Henry Rohler, A. 
Backhouse, shoe shop; Roger Ryan, Charles 
Hills, Josiah Stevens, artesian well-borers; 
Thomas Saureman, harness shop; Hills & 
Deibert, general store; J. R. Dunning, Post- 
master ai-d general store; Henry Vanderhoof, 
physician; G. W. Robinson, Baptist clergy- 
man; A. B. Mysch, Lutheran clergyman; 
William Rathge, Notary Public ; Robert Gates, 
Henry Woodruff, Justices of the Peace; Jo- 
siah Stevens, Charles Pierce, Constables; 
Henry Holstine, grist-mill, propelled by wind- 
power, manufacturers of flour and grinds feed. 

The village of Roselle, situated in the 
northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of 
Section 3, Township 40, Range 10, was plat- 
ted and recorded October 5, 1874, by Bernard 
Beck. The following is a list of its business 
men: 

Hattendorf & Bagge, general store and 
agricultural implements; M. Seeker, general 
store; Illinois Linen Company, manufactory 
of linen fabrics, ropes, twines, etc. ; a grist- 
mill with three run of stones for flour and 
feed, Henry Holstine, proprietor; Rudolph 
Milton, blacksmith; grain elevator, by Fred- 
erick Langhurst; meat market, by J. Theo- 



BLOOMINGDALE TOWNSHIP. 



283 



bald; wholesale meat market, by Fred Golt- 
ermann; lumber yard, by Frederick Thies; 
hardware and tin shop, by Henry Williams; 
H. A. Seeker, hotel; Henry Eincke, hotel; 
Henry Sumner, keeps the depot; J. H. C. 
Hattendorf, Postmaster; a public school; 
Henry Woodworth, Justice of the Peace; Jo- 
seph Fidler, carpenter; John D. Behrer. 
boots and shoes; George Steging, harness 
maker. 

The elevation of the place is 190 feet 
above Lake Michigan. 

Meacham is a station on the Chicago, St. 
Paul & Pacific Railroad, in Section 1, in 
Bloomingdale Township. It has one general 
store, kept by James Pierce, who also keeps 
the depot and is Postmaster. The Methodist 
Church at the place was first organized as a 
class meeting by Rev. J. C. Stoughton, in 
1851. Elizabeth Pierce, Mary Ann Battin, 
Grace Lawrence and Mr. and Mrs. B. B 
Miller were the members. They met in the 
old schoolhouse. Here their services were 
held, including their Sunday school, which 
was organized in January, 1858. The next 
year their church was finished and regular 
preaching has been sustained in it till the 
present time. The church when first organ- 



ized numbered only six members. Now it 
numbers thirty-six and is under the pastoral 
charge of Rev. T. C. Warrington. 

Mr. Rufus Blanchard: 

Agreeable to your request, 1 give you herewith a 
statement as to a strange phenomenon that occurred 
on my land in Bloomingdale in August, 1856. 

Observing that one of my fences was prostrated, 
I examined the breach, and found that one of the 
posts had been shattered into splinters from below 
the second board above the ground, including the 
portion of it set in the ground. The portion of 
the post above where the bottom board was nailed 
to it was whole, without the marks of violence, but 
the lower board nailed to it was somewhat shattered. 
The strangest part of the whole was that in the 
identical hole made in the ground in which the post 
had stood, a deep incision was made as if, by some 
violent operation of nature, something had perfo- 
rated it from below up, the evidence of which 
theory being found from the abundance of dirt 
thrown out and scattered for three or four rods all in 
one direction — probably owing to the wind. The 
splinters of the lower part of the fence post were 
also scattered the same as the dirt which had been 
thrown out of the hole. I ran a pole about ten feet 
long down the hole, but could find no bottom, nor 
could I hear pebbles strike any bottom as I dropped 
them down. The hole was about six inches in 
diameter, and as clean a cut as could be bored with 
an auger. Daniel Kelley. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me, a Notary 
Public, the 13th day of September, 1882. 

W. L. Guy, Notary Public. 







284 



HISTORY OF T>V PAGE COUNTY. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



ADDISON TOWNSHIP— THE MOUNTAIN DAISY— INDIAN ENCAMPMENT— THE ARMY TRAIL— THE SOL- 

DIER'S GRAVE— THE LOG CABIN— HOME TALENT— THE GERMAN VANGUARD— THE PIONEER 

TAVERN— THE OLD GALENA TRADE— SALT CREEK-FRANCIS HOFFMAN, A LAY PREACHER 

—THE VILLAGE OF ADDISON— THE GERMAN EVANGELICAL TEACHERS' SEMINARY 

—THE ORPHAN ASYLUM— PROFESSIONAL AND BUSINESS MEN OF ADDISON 

—ITASCA— ITS BUSINESS MEN— LESTER'S— BENSENVILLE— SCHOOLS. 



r T^HE mountain daisy is a handsome white 
*- flower, about the size of the old-fash- 
ioned bell-buttons that were fashionably used 
on boys' blue satinet roundabouts in the early 
part of the present century, and discontinued 
about the year 1835. This daisy was cer- 
tainly more ornamental than useful. But 
what had it to do with the history of Addi- 
son? Let us speculate. The daisy was so 
tenacious of life that it was more difficult to 
kill than blue grass. Wherever it took pos- 
session of the land, it outrivaled every other 
kind of vegetation, and rendered it almost 
valueless for meadow or pasturage. It grew 
in several of the towns east of the Meirimack 
River, in the vicinity of Concord, N. H., es- 
pecially in Stoddard and Hillsboro, and forced 
many of the inhabitants away from their 
mountain homes to seek more fruitful locali- 
ties, where a better reward met the hands of 
the husbandman. The writer came from this 
part of New Hampshire, and speaks from his 
own knowledge. At Hillsboro lived Heze- 
kiah Duncklee, and from this place he emi- 
grated in the summer of 1 833. If the mount- 
ain daisy drove farmers away from the place, 
perhaps their gorgeous beauty gave them a 
taste for the ornamental, and may not have 
served a vain purpose. Mr. Duncklee, having 
crossed the Green Mountains, arrived at Pots- 
dam, in the State of New York, safely, where 



he was joined by Mason Smith, and the two 
started together for the West. 

Their road lay along the old historic 
grounds of Fort Stanwix (now Rome), thence 
across the Genesee River at Rochester and 
Buffalo, at which place they took a boat for 
Detroit, where they bought a horse and wag- 
on, and pursued their journey across the State 
of Michigan to Chicago, which they reached 
on the 3d of September. They rested here 
five days, and again started westwardly for 
the Desplaines River, crossing it at the pres- 
ent site of May wood, from which place a well- 
traveled road bore westwardly across an ap- 
parently boundless prairie. But, before 
starting on this road, they encamped for the 
night in the country so strange to the visit- 
ors. The low, flat prairie, and the sluggish 
river that drained it, were the least of their 
surprises. The Pottawatomies still owned 
the entire country to which they were emi- 
grating, and 300 of their number were as- 
sembled on the river bank here. It was a 
picture rarely to be looked on to see these 
natives just preparing to leave their homes to 
make room for the new-comers, for they (the 
Indians) were now bending their course to 
Chicago to attend the treaty there, destined 
to convey Northern Illinois east of Rock 
River to those who had already taken pos- 
session of the choicest portions of it before 



ADDISON TOWNSHIP. 



285 



the bargain was made to sell it, and Mr. 
Duncklee and Mr. Smith were two more of 
this class on whom the Lidians could look in 
no other light than that of intruders. 

The next morning they resumed their jour- 
ney, following the trail over which Scott's 
army had passed eleven months before. It 
has since been put down on early maps as the 
Elgin road. It enters the present township 
of Addison at its extreme southeast corner, 
and leads thence to the village of Addison, 
on Salt Creek, and this was the location of 
the road which the travelers took. 

Toiling along their way in this narrow 
path between two oceans of green, they came 
to a grave where one of the soldiers who came 
the year before, under command of Gen. 
Scott, to defend the country from the Sauks, 
had found his last resting-place, and the 
first grave of a white man in Addison Town- 
ship. Farther along, at Salt Creek, were the 
tent poles still standing as the army had left 
them. They crossed the stream and encamped 
for the night on the prairie, amidst the lul- 
laby din of reptile life. But soon these soft 
voices of the night were drowned by the 
sharp yelp of the numerous wolves that hung 
around the camp attracted by the scent of 
strange animal life in their midst, but too 
formidable for them to attack. Pushing for- 
ward the next morning, they reached the 
settlement which theMeachams had made six 
months before. Here two men in pursuit of 
a home met three who had already laid claim 
to one in the verge of a grove that now bears 
their name — Meacham' s Grove. Six months' 
experience in a country, wild as nature could 
make it, was productive of much practical in- 
formation. Everything was to be built new, 
and the problem was how to begin. The 
Meachams gave the new-comers the benefit 
of their experience, and the result was that 
they proceeded back to a grove on Salt Creek, 



north of where they had crossed this stream, 
and, on the 12th of September, selected a lo- 
cation on the northern verge of a grove, to 
which the name of Duncklee' s Grove has 
since been given. Mr. Dunckley's claim was 
on what became Sections 10 and 1 5 when the 
country came to be surveyed. It consisted of 
suitable portions of prairie and timber, as 
first claims always did till timber lands had 
all been taken possession of. 

The first thing to be done was to build a 
house. This was no difficult task to accom- 
plish where there was plenty of timber, and 
all the tools required were an ax, hammer, 
saw, and adze to smooth the surface of the 
floor, which was made of split logs, flat side 
upward, called puncheons, besides which a 
frow, with which to rive out clapboards for 
the roof, was necessary. The whole was fin- 
ished in two weeks, and occupied by the first 
freeholder of Addison Townshi p. Mr. Dunck- 
lee's family arrived the next year, 1834, in 
August, at the new home, amidst the growing 
crops that had rewarded the labors of this 
pioneer farmer. The following June, on the 
18th, was born a daughter, Julia A., who, at 
her maturity, became the wife of Frederick 
E. Lester. She was the first white child born 
in Addison, and became the ■ first school- 
teacher at the place, from which we must in- 
fer that Addison was rather tardy in estab- 
lishing schools, or wished to wait till they 
could grow a teacher on their own soil. Set- 
ting this down to their love of home talent, 
if the latter was the case, we will pass on to 
the next thing done here in a similar direc- 
tion. This was to plant apple seeds, which 
Mr. Duncklee did in 1836, and his orchard 
grew from this seed, as the first school-teacher 
had grown on the fuitful soil of Addison. 
Both were a success. Miss Julia taught a 
good school, and the orchard of Mr. Dunck- 
lee bore fruitfully, affording a handsome in- 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



come for its fruit in a few years after it was 
planted. In the summer subsequent to Mr. 
Duncklee's first arrival, there came to the 
place and settled a Mr. Perin, who^took sick 
and died in a few weeks, his being the first 
death in Addison, except the unfortunate sol- 
dier whose grave was seen by Mr. Dunck- 
lee, as already told. 

Early in the summer of the same year 
1834, Ebenezer Duncklee, brother to Heze- 
kiah, came and made a claim adjoining him 
and Richard Kingston. Thomas H. Thom- 
son, James Bean, Demerit Hoyt and D. Par- 
sons, all from the Eastern States, came and 
made claims, mostly at the southern side of 
the grove. 

Thus far, the settlement was exclusively 
American, but close upon their heels, or per- 
haps ere the last of the above-mentioned had 
settled, there came to the place the vanguard 
of the German immigration destined to ap- 
propriate the lands of what, since that time, 
became Addison Township. This vanguard 
was William Henry Bosque, Barney H. Fran- 
zen, Frederick Graue (with his family of five 
stalwart young men — Dedrick, Frederick, Jr., 
Luderwich, Heinrich and August — and one 
daughter, Willemine. to help the mother gar- 
nish the house and the manners of the boys). 
The main settlement of these Germans was 
at a small grove, in what is now Section 34, 
ever since called Graue's Grove; but some of 
the Graue family settled in what is now York. 
Willemine was soon married to Frederick 
Kraige, who also settled near by. Banhard 
Koeler. who came with Mr. Graue, and Ded- 
rick Leseman, all came the same year, and 
Young Germany took deep root at the place. 
Besides all these, Thomas Williams and E. 
Lamb, from New York State, came in 1834. 
The next year, 1835, Edward Lester, with 
his five sons — Marshall, John, Daniel, Fred- 
erick and Lewis -came to the place from the 



State of New York; also two brothers, Charles 
H. and Hiram Hoit, and George Rouse, came 
from the Eastern States, and Young America 
seemed to hold her own with Young Ger- 
many, but soon again the latter, coming in 
great force, took the lead. J. H Schmidt, 
and his son, H. Schmidt, Jr., and Mr. Buch- 
ols, who was subsequently killed at the rais- 
ing of Mr. Plagge's log cabin in 1838, all 
came in 1835, and the next year, Henry D. 
Fischer, J. L. Franzen, B. Kaler, D. S. Dun- 
ning, Frederick Stuenkle, the Banum broth- 
ers, J. Bertram, S. D. Pierce, C. W. Martin, 
B. F. Fillmore, came to the settlement; and 
the next year, 1837, Conrad Fischer, father 
of Henry D., also Frederick J. and August, 
two of his brothers, and William Asche, came 
to the place. 

The famous old tavern known as the Buck- 
horn was opened the same year, by Charles 
Hoit. It stood on the Galena road, two miles 
west of Salt Creek. It did a thriving busi- 
ness, the farmers to the west as far as Rock 
River being guests at the place on their way 
to and from Chicago to market their produce. 
Teams also came from Galena, loaded with 
lead, a heavy article to pull through the 
sloughs that intervened between the two 
places. As prices range now for every kind 
of strpply, a teamster would find his bills 
payable larger than his bills receivable, if he 
had lead given to him free, and hauled it to 
Chicago to sell at the going price, if he paid 
common hotel fare and allowed the customary 
rates for the use of his horses and pay for his 
own time; but conditions were different then. 
His horses bated on the prairie for rough feed, 
and ate their allowance of corn or oats from 
the feed trough attached to the wagon, which 
was brought from the farm from whence they 
came. The owner of the team slept in his 
wagon, except in very cold weather, and 
brought a portion of his food from home, pat- 



ADDISON TOWNSHIP. 



287 



ronizing the tavern for only an occasional meal, 
or for hay for his horses, when the prairie 
did not furnish grass, which was from the 
time of its being burnt over in the fall till 
the following June. 

It was about this time that Salt Creek re- 
ceived its name. A teamster named John 
Reid. from Onoida County, N. Y., was em- 
ployed to haul lead from Galena to Chicago, 
and on one of his trips, loaded back with salt, 
and, in crossing this stream, got " stuck " in 
the mud. The water was high, flooded his 
load and melted it away ere he could get help 
to pull it out. The consequence was that the 
creek ran brine for a few hours, and received 
a name which is also a memento of the early 
toils of the teamster. 

Everything was cheap then, and a hotel or 
anything else could be carried on at but tri- 
fling expense. If the income was small, the 
outgoes were still smaller. Ten cents for the 
hay for a horse during the night, and 15 cents 
or 20 cents for a meal for the teamster, were 
ordinary charges. 

All other charges were proportionate, in- 
cluding the expense incurred for dispensing 
the early Gospel. Divine services were held in 
schoolhouses, or sometimes in private houses. 

The Germans who settled this township 
were Lutherans. Rev. Koschon was their 
first preacher. Services were sometimes held 
in the house of Mr. Schmidt. He remained 
pastor for about two years, when his place was 
supplied by Francis Hoffman, the same who 
subsequently opened a bank in Chicago in 
connection with Mr. Gelpke. He now owns 
the model farm of the State of Wisconsin. 
Mr. Hoffman was schoolmaster, as well as 
preacher, and the old log cabin where he gave 
the rudiments of science to the young gener- 
ation of his time stood where the house of 
Lewis Schmidt now stands, in Addison Vil- 
lage. 



The village of Addison is situated on Sec- 
tions 21 and 28, on the east side of Salt 
Creek. Its elevation above Lake Michigan 
is about one hundred and twenty feet. 

It was one of the early settlements of the 
township, and, as these settlements progressed, 
became a central point for a village, post 
office and stores to accommodate them. But 
the chief elements of a village in the place 
are its educational institutions, the history 
of which, together with that of the church, 
will constitute substantially the history of the 
village itself. 

GEBMAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH. 

The first German settler came to Addison, 
then known as Duncklee's Grove, in 1834. 
As long as a public ministry was not estab- 
lished with them, they would assemble on 
Sundays for prayer and devotional reading 
at their own homes, going the rounds in the 
neighborhood. Later, they had occasional 
visits of clergymen. In November, 1842, a 
congregation was organized, about twenty 
families joining, some of Reformed, some of 
Lutheran persuasion. Accordingly, they 
adopted the name of the German Reformed 
Lutheran Congregation. Forty-eight acres 
were purchased as a site for a church, parson- 
age and cemetery. The membership increas- 
ing, a Lutheran minister, Rev. E. A. Brauer, 
was called in November, 1847, and by a unani- 
mous vote it was resolved no longer to be a 
mixed, but a truly Lutheran Church. The 
new name, the German Evangelical-Lutheran 
Congregation, was adopted. In the follow- 
ing year, the Reformed members severed their 
connection and organized a new church, re- 
ceiving from the Lutheran congregation 
$170 in return for their former contributions, 
and §65 for their share of church property. 

Following is the confession of faith of the 
congregation, as contained in Section '2 of its 



288 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



constitution : "As such (a Lutheran Church) 
the congregation professes the holy and di- 
vine word of the Old and the New Testa- 
ments, as the doctrine of the same is laid 
down in the public confessions of the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Church, viz. , the three ec- 
umenical 'symbols, the unaltered Augsburg 
confession, the apology of the latter, the 
Smalealdiau Articles, the two catechisms of 
Luther, and the Formula of Concord. By 
the rule of these confessions, since they are 
taken from the Word of God, all doctrinal 
and religious disputes that may arise in our 
midst shall be decided." 

The congregation now owns a large brick 
church, 42x85 feet, steeple 150 feet high, 
which was dedicated to its sacred purposes 
December 11, 1861. It was built, furnished 
and provided with pipe organ at an expense 
of about $12,000. Adjoining the church is 
a spacious parsonage, valued at nearly $4,000. 

The members are scattered over a district 
fourteen miles long and twelve miles wide. 
The congregation is subdivided into four dis- 
tricts, three of which support one school each, 
and one two schools, one of the latter graded 
into three classes. All expenses for support 
of church and schools are provided for by 
voluntary contributions of the individual 
members, now numbering over two hundred 
families. 

The pastors in charge from 1847 were: 
Rev. E. A. Branor, till 1856, when he accept- 
ed the call of the Lutheran congregation at 
Pittsburgh, Penn. ; Rev. A. G. G. Francke, 
till January 3, 1879, when he was called off 
by death; Rev. T. I. Grosse, who is still 
pastor at present. 

The congregation strictly insists on having 
the children of its fold instructed and edu- 
cated in the parochial schools of the four dis- 
tricts, presided over by six male teachers and 
one female teacher. The number of pupils 



at present is about three hundred and fifty - 
five. Both the English and the German lan- 
guages are means of instruction, it being the 
earnest desire of the congregation that their 
children, whilst retaining their mother 
tongue, should master the ruling language of 
the country. The teachers now in charge of 
the schools are: West District, Mr. H. Bart- 
ling (since 1849), Mr. C. Greve, Miss B. 
Heidemann, Mr. A. Meder; East District, 
Mr. H. Cluever; North District, Mr. E. Rosen; 
South District (Elmhurst), Mr. A. Bader. — 
H. Bartling. 

GERMAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN TEACHERS' SEM- 
INARY. 

The German Evangelical Lutheran Teach- 
ers' Seminary at Addison, Du Page Co., 111., 
is an institution for educating Evangelical 
Lutheran parochial teachers. In the year 
1855, several Lutheran pastors and teachers 
in Milwaukee privately opened this normal 
school there. Two years later, they offered 
the institution to the German Evangelical 
Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other 
States. The offer was accepted, and the sem- 
inary next located at Fort Wayne, Ind., in 
close connection with the Concordia College, 
another of the several institutions of the 
synod. A Professor was appointed by the 
synod, who became at the same time Director 
of the Seminary Department, and who was 
assisted in his special work by the Professors 
of the college. In 1861, a second Professor 
for the seminary was called. In 1863, it was 
thought expedient to accept an invitation 
from the German Evangelical Lutheran Con- 
gregation at Addison, 111., to permanently 
locate the seminary in their midst. One year 
after this, the necessary buildings for sixty 
scholars and two Professors, with their fami- 
lies, were erected, viz. , a main building, 64x- 
40 feet, containing basement, two stories, 



ADDISON TOWNSHIP. 



289 



and a high and airy dormitory, and, north 
and south from it, two wings, each 32x15 
feet, built of brick, and at a cost of upward 
of $16,000. Later, as the number of stu- 
dents increased, two other large wings were 
added, first one to the north and then one to 
the south, each at the cost of about $10,000. 
The entire length of the building is now 
about 208 feet. The faculty at present con- 
sists of six regular Professors — E. A. W. 
Krauss, C. A. T. Selle, Karl Brauer, C. 
Hentzschel, Th. Brohm and E. Homann — 
two of whom teach almost exclusively music 
— singing, violin, piano, organ. Two of the 
six have their dwellings in the main build- 
ings; here, also, the Steward, Mr. V. von 
Dissen, resides, who has to provide the stu- 
dents with their board. Four Professors are 
supplied with spacious and comfortable frame 
houses. The present number of students is 
about one hundred and thirty, all males. In 
the course of live years, they are taught all 
the branches necessary to qualify them to 
become teachers, both in the German and 
English languages, and, besides, such 
branches as are requisite for a good general 
education. The parochial school, which is 
quite near, affords them the necessary oppor- 
tunity for practical exercises in teaching. 
By the liberality of the synod, they receive 
their tuition and lodgings gratuitously; the 
members of the congregation supply them 
with clean linen, and for board they have to 
pay but very little, since numerous friends 
from far and near send large quantities of 
provisions to the seminary kitchen. The 
annual number of alumni varies from twelve 
to twenty-five. As they did come here from 
all parts of the Union, not to speak of those 
that came directly from Germany, so they re- 
ceive calls from almost all parts of the United 
States, and many more are wanted than the 
institution can furnish. The Board of Su- 



pervisors for the seminary consists at present 
of Revs. T. J. Grosse and H. Wunder, and 
Messrs. E. H. W. Leeseberg, Henry Oehler- 
king and T. C. Diener. — C. A. T. Selle. 

THE GERMAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN ORPHAN 
ASYLUM. 

This asylum is situated in the immediate 
vicinity of the German Evangelical Lutheran 
Teachers' Seminary, and of one of the paro- 
chial schools of the German Evangelical Lu- 
theran Congregation of Addison. It is the 
joint property of twenty-three Lutheran con- 
gregations and societies in Northern Illinois, 
eight of which large congregations are in 
Chicago. This association commits the gen- 
eral management of its business to a board of 
seven persons, elected for a term of three 
years. The members now constituting the 
board are: Rev. T. J. Grosse, of Addison, 
President; Prof. C. A. T. Selle, oE Addison, 
Vice President; Rev. F. M. Grosse, of Har- 
lem, Secretary; Mr. H. Bartling, of Addison, 
Cashier; Mr. E. H. W. Leeseberg, of Addi- 
son; H. C. Zuttermeister, of Chicago; I. O. 
Piepenbrink, of Crete, 111., Trustees. The 
orphan house is under the superintendence 
of Mr. and Mrs. John Harmening, assisted by 
Mrs. Nickel, one baker and five servants. 

According to its constitution, the Orphan 
House Association proposes to provide for 
and to educate orphans and half orphans that 
are intrusted to the same to such purpose by 
their guardians or by surviving parent, or that 
God sends by other ways. The association 
educates tbe children in the full truth of the 
Divine Word, as this truth is intrusted to the 
Lutheran Church, and thus endeavors to lead 
them to the Lord Christ and to heaven ; but 
it is also earnestly solicited to prepare its 
wards for a blessed and hopeful life in this 
world, that may redound to the honor of our 
own great God. In order that this purpose 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



may be accomplished as far as possible, chil- 
dren must be committed to the care of the as- 
sociation till they are eighteen years of age. 
Up to the time when they are confirmed, they 
stay in the orphan house, and after confir- 
mation, the association, through its officers, 
provides suitable situations for them — to 
work as servants, to learn a trade, to pursue 
studies with the view to serving the church, 
it being understood, however, that the asso- 
ciation retains the exclusive control of the 
children up to the completion of their eight- 
eenth year. Whenever it is necessary and 
practicable, the assoication provides for the 
support of its wards also, after this period. 
Orphans are received irrespective of previous 
creed of parents, or of creed of surviving 
parent. (Constitution, Section 4.) 

In 1873, forty acres were bought for $4,- 
425. A little house on this property was oc- 
cupied as a temporary home by the Superin- 
tendent and six orphans, and was dedicated 
October 11, 1873. In 1874, the east wing of 
fhe present home (one and a half stories 
high, 65x38 feet, extension 30x28 feet) was 
erected, at a cost of $6,814.27. It was ded- 
icated October 28, and, at that date, harbored 
eighteen orphans. In 1878, the main build- 
ing, 50x50, two stories, was built, and was 
dedicated November 7. This part cost 15,- 
122.25. 

From October 11, 1873, when the home 
was opened, till June 28, 1882, 154 children 
were received, of which 106 are still in the 
institution; five died, ten were returned to 
their relatives, twenty-nine serve on farms 
and in families, and four are now preparing 
for service in the church — two at the Addison 
Teachers' Seminary, two at Concordia Col- 
lege, Fort Wayne, Ind. 

The orphans attend the graded school (three 
classes) of the German Evangelical Lutheran 
Congregation. Here they are instructed in 



the Lutheran faith, German and English lan- 
guages, and in all common branches. 

Funds and endowments there are none. 
The institution depends for its support on 
voluntary contributions. The cash amount 
of these was, in 1873, $3,070.06; in 1874, 
$6,095.03; in 1875, $2,870.24, in 1876, $3,- 
367.82; in 1877, $3,893.85; in 1878, $5,815.- 
23; in 1879, $5,090.39; in 1880, $4,762.19; 
in 1881, $4,808.60. The many donations of 
clothing, provisions, etc., are an essential 
source of income. — H. Bartling. 

immanuel's church. 

The Immanuel's Church of the German 
Evangelical Synod was founded in Addison 
in 1859, under the pastoral charge of Rev. 
C. Braemer. He has been succeeded by 
Revs. C. F. Warth, Phillip Albert and Gus- 
tavus Lambrecht, the latter being the pres- 
ent pastor. The present membership of this 
churcb is ninety families. 

The following are the professional and 
business men of Addison: 

Rotermund & Weber, general store. 

F. Triechler, general store. 

H. Overcamp, blacksmith. 

Charles Harloff, wagon-maker. 

J. G. Franke, M. D. 

Charles Shulle, meat market. 

Henry Schneider, hotel. 

Charles Strauchild, harness -maker. 

John Giehls, custom tailor. 

W. Golterman, custom tailor. 

W. Licht, boot and shoe maker. 

F. Tuon, wood-turner. 

W. Holstein, carpenter and builder. 

H. Hoefener, mason and plasterer. 

Louis Stuenkel, cheese factory — 7,000 to 
8,000 pounds of milk daily. 

Rev. J. Grosse, Evangelical Lutheran 
Church. 

H. Bartling, Postmaster and school teacher. 



ADDISON TOWNSHIP. 



291 



Cristian Grerie, school-teacher. 

C. Kraus, Director of Addison Seminary. 

C. Hantchell, Professor of Addison Semi- 
nary. 

E. Sella, Professor of Addison Seminary. 

C. Brauer, Professor of Addison Seminary. 

Th. Brolum, Professor of Addison Seminary. 

E. Homann, Professor of Addison Seminar}'. 

J. Harmening, Orphan Father — 110 or- 
phans there at present. 

W. Leseberg, Justice of the Peace and 
Notary Public. 

Itasca is a pleasant village on the Chicago 
& St. Paul Railroad, at its crossing of a trib- 
utary to Salt Creek. Here Dr. Elijah Smith 
settled in 1841, and still lives at the place. 
He platted the town May 14, 1874. The 
banks of the stream that passes through it 
are firm, and graduate upward from it on 
both sides. Its elevation above Lake Mich- 
igan is 170 feet. Dr. Smith gave the rail- 
road the right of way to build the road 
through the place, and $400 toward building 
the depot. 

There are two theories as to the origin of 
the name Itasca. If it has an Indian deriva- 
tion, it is from the Ogibwa dialect — la, to 
be; totash, the female breast; hence, the lake 
from which the Mississippi draws its first 
source is called Itasca, and this town is 
named after it. 

Another theory gives the name a Latin or- 
igin — Veritas caput, true head, Itas, in the 
first word, and ca, in the last, being used to 
signify that Itasca Lake is the true head of 
the Mississippi River. Which of these is 
the true root of the word the writer is unable 
to determine. 

The following are the business men of 
Itasca: 

Elijah Smith, physician. 

A. G. Chessman, steam power for grain 
elevator, cheese box and tub factory. 



Henry F. Lawrence, general store. 

A. G. Chesman, Postmaster. 

Chessman & Cramer, carpenters and build 
era. 

Henry Ahlenstorf, boots and shoes. 

Ernst Schroeder, blacksmith and wagon- 
maker. 

Lewis Magers, grain elevator, coal and 
lumber. 

William Baruth, general store. 

Henry Dragermuller, blacksmith and wag- 
on-maker. 

August Hartman, meat market. 

Hendricks Bros., proprietors of cheese and 
butter factory; 5,000 gallons of milk used 
daily; 200 pounds of butter and 400 pounds 
of cheese, daily production. 

Henry Senne, agricultural implements. 

John Holland, mason. 

Haberstich Godleib, flax-dresser. 

M. & W. Browne, depot masters. 

Salt Creek, or Lester's, is a station on the 
Chicago & St. Paul Railroad, at its crossing 
of Salt Creek. It is yet very new, and has 
but one store, which is kept by F. E. Lester, 
who is Postmaster at the place. 

It has a cheese factory, owned by Mr. 
Lester. 

BENSENVILLE BY HERMAN H. KORTHADER. 

The present site of Bensenville, located in 
Sections 13, 14 and 23, was purchased by 
Dedrich Struckmann, T. R. Dobbins and Col. 
Roselle M. Hough, of Jobn Lemarche, in 
1872; shortly after, Hough's interest (one- 
fourth) was purchased by Frederick Hener 
and Henry Korthauer. 

The purchase was subdivided in 1874, two 
years after the Chicago & Pacific Railroad 
was built, and a post office obtained, Henry 
A. Glos being appointed Postmaster. It had 
already become an incorporated village, its 
p'at recorded bearing date of October 10, 1873. 



292 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



In 1879, the Chicago & Pacific Company 
becoming insolvent, the road was purchased 
by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Kail- 
road, a change greatly beneficial to the north- 
ern portion of the county; new steel rails 
were substituted for the old track, the road- 
bed raised, new buildings erected and in- 
creased facilities given. 

The water supply being insufficient, the 
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Company 
contracted with W. H. Gray, of Jefferson, 
Cook Co., 111., a professional borer of arte- 
sian wells, for an artesian well. Work was 
commenced August 1, 1881, and, after five 
months' continuous labor, day and night, and 
an expense of $5,000, it was sunk to the depth 
of 21,198 feet 8 inches, the greater portion 
of the distance being through solid rock. 

The water obtained, on analysis, proved to 
be almost chemically pure. 

It rises thirty-eight feet above the surface, 
and has a temperature of sixty-eight degrees 
Fahrenheit, flowing about one hundred gal- 
lons per minute. 

The village has about two hundred and fifty 
residents, the majority of whom are German. 

This is the largest village in the town of 
Addison, and the most important station be- 
tween Chicago and Elgin. 

The location is high, and an abundance of 
good water is found at a depth of about 
twenty feet. 

The dairy interests of Bensenville and vi- 
cinity are by far the most important. Over 
three hundred thousand gallons of milk are 
shipped annually to Chicago, and double that 
amount is manufactured into butter and 
cheese. During 1881; 150,000 pounds of 
butter and nearly 400,000 pounds of cheese 
were made here. 

Bensenville is the homo office of the Ad- 
dison Farmers' Mutual Insurance Company. 

This company was incorporated on the 3d 



of March, 1855, for a term of twenty-five 
years, Diedrich Struckmann, Henry Roter- 
mund, Frederick Schmidt, John E. Kiessling 
and John H. Franzen being the charter mem- 
bers. 

The first officers were: William Roter- 
mund, President; Benjamin F. Filmore, Sec- 
retary ; Henry Rotermund, Treasurer ; Dr. 
A. W. Heise, D. Struckmann, Frederick 
Schmidt and H. Rotermund, Directors. 

In March, 1879, the charter was extended 
thirty years, or to 1909. 

Since the establishment of the company, 
business has increased steadily from year to 
year, all losses have been promptly paid, and 
the affairs managed satisfactorily to the mem- 
bers. 

There are now in force 2,022 policies, 
insuring $2,338,352 of property. 

The present assets are over $125,000. 

A general meeting of the members occurs 
annually, on the second Saturday in January. 

The quarterly meeting of Directors is held 
on the second Saturday in January, April, 
July and October. 

The officers for the current year (1882) are: 
Henry Bosenberg, President; Herman H. 
Korthauer, Secretary; Barney L. Franzen, 
Treasurer; H. Bosenberg, B. L. Franzen, 
Henry L. Glos, L. Wolf, Phillip Bohlander, 
John Longguth and Henry Kolze, Directors. 

The first church in Addison Township was 
organized in 1837 by Rev. E. Benberger. 

For three years, the services were held in 
a small log house on Louis Schmidt's farm. 

In 1S40, Rev. F. A. Hoffmann assumed 
charge; there being no house provided for 
the pastor, he was obliged to live with the 
members, moving weekly from house to house. 
During 1840, a frame building was erected 
near the present site of the Evangelical Lu- 
theran Church, where services were held un- 
til 1847. 



ADDISON TOWNSHIP 



293 



In 1847, Rev. Hoffmann severed bis connec- 
tion with the church, and Eev. Ernest 
Brauer, a Lutheran minister, was installed, 
with the understanding that the services were 
to be conducted as formerly to suit both fac- 
tions of the congregations, one portion of 
which was Lutheran and the other Reformed 
Lutheran. 

About six months after, it became evident 
that the union services could not be contin- 
ued; accordingly, a division took place, the 
Lutherans retaining possession of the church, 
and the Reformed Lutherans, twenty-one in 
number, organizing under the name of the 
Evangelical St. Johanne's Society. 

The names of the first members were Henry 
Hoppenstadt, Fred Federke, Barney H. 
Landmeier, J. H. Schoppe, J. Gr. Landmeier, 
Fred Heine, H. Kolze, Fred Volberding, Gr. 
Eitermann, W. Niemeyer, JohnH. Frauzen, J. 
H Korthauer, H. Kirchhop, Christian Dunter- 
mann, J. B. Schoppe, H. Volberding, John 
Franzen, H. Hartman, J. H. Duehna, Gr. H. 
Frazen, F. Dierking. 

A church was built in the winter of 1849- 
50, in Section 12. The first pastor of the 
new congregation was Rev. Wucherer, who 
died one year after taking charge. He was 
succeeded by Rev. Ulrich Moecklin, who re- 
mained until his death, which occurred in 
1868. Rev. Peter Lehmann then assumed 
charge, and was their pastor until 1880. 
Under his pastorate, a handsome church, a 
parsonage, schoolhouse and a dwelling for 
the school teacher was built, eighteen acres of 
land purchased, besides expending a large 
sum in beautifying the church grounds and 
cemetery. 

Rev. Mr. Lehmann resigned in 1880, 
and was succeeded by Rev. Bower, who 
is the present pastor. The church is in 
a flourishing condition, having over 400 
members. 



The following is a list of the business and 
professional men: 

C. A. Franzen, lumber, grain, coal, flour 
and feed. 

P. J. Tiedemann, dry goods, groceries, 
crockery, etc. 

Christian Hiebenthal, Postmaster, grocer- 
ies, boots and shoes. 

Hermann H. Korthauer (Notary Public), 
stoves, agricultural implements and general 
hardware. 

Henry Ernsting, merchant tailor. 

Herman Fiebrandt, tinner, also dealer in 
hardware, etc. 

Louis Markmann, hotel. 

Christian Koch, hotel. 

Louis Schroeder, blacksmith. 

Charles Martin, blacksmith. 

Charles Sandhagen, wheelwright. 

Henry Wellner, furniture, burial cases. 

Frank Ort, harness, saddles, etc. 

Christian Bauche, mason. 

Henry Schmidt and Louis Biermann, 
manufacturers of tow. 

August Seuf, butcher. 

Frank Hornbostle, butcher. 

William Struckmeyer, butter and cheese. 

Gustaf Gutche, shoemaker. 

Frederick H. Bates, M. D., physician and 
surgeon. 

A. D. Swenson, V. S., veterinary surgeon. 

The town of Addison occupies the extreme 
northeastern corner of Du Page County. Its 
surface is generally quite level, but its drain- 
age good, as its elevation is sufficient to make 
it so. Its soil is of the best quality, produc- 
ing corn, oats and other cereals in great abun- 
dance. But the dairy business is getting to 
be its chief agricultural interest. The ex- 
tensive groves of this town have been, and are 
still, of great value to the farmers, affording 
abundance of lumber for fencing, as well as 
a large supply of fuel. They have also 



291 



HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY. 



served a valuable purpose in modulating 
the extremes of summer and winter, and 
have proved a substantial inducement to 
settlers. 

There are now live school districts in the 
town, in each of which good schoolhouses 



have been built, which, together with the lit- 
erary institutions of the village of Addison, 
place the town high in the scale of scholastic 
education. The school census shows the num- 
ber of persons between the ages] of six and 
twenty-five in the town to be 525. "j 




PART II. 



IOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 



PART II. 



Biographical Sketches. 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



. FRANCIS P. ABBOTT, farmer, P. 0. Na- 
perville, is a native of Ireland, born in the year 
1832, and received but a limited schooling. In 
1S51, he came to the United States, and in 
October of that year to Du Page County, 111., 
and worked on a farm by the month for two 
years and four months for one man, and then 
some six years he lived with his mother and 
sister, and worked at odd jobs. He then 
rented a place, and began farming on his own 
account, renting some eight years. He then 
bought a place of his own, and in 1868 came 
to his present place, which contains 100 acres 
located three and one-half miles northwest of 
Naperville. March 29, 1864, he married Miss 
Tamar Simpson, a native of New York. She 
came to Du Page County with her parents. 
By the marriage there are two children — Arthur 
E. and Nora M. He is Republican in politics. 
MARTIN BROWN, merchant, Naperville, is 
a native of Lancaster County, Penn., born Au- 
gust 3. 1831, and is the third in a family of five 
children born to David and Mary (Fry) Brown, 
natives of Lancaster County, Penn.; their 
parents were also born in Lancaster County ; 
David and Mary were married in Lancaster 
County, where she died in 1838, leaving five chil- 
dren, all of whom are now living, and grown up. 



About 1839, David married Elizabeth Clinson, 
a native of Lancaster County. He was a black- 
smith by trade, but during the last nine years 
of residence in Pennsylvania he followed farm- 
ing. In 1844, he came, with his family, in 
company with thirteen other families, to Naper- 
ville, 111., the company being induced to settle 
in this neighborhood by Bishop Seibert, of Lan- 
caster County, who had traveled as missionary 
in this vicinity. The party bought land here. 
and Mr. Brown farmed until about 1867, when 
he sold his place. In 1865, he engaged in mer- 
cantile business with his son, Martin, and was 
connected in mercantile business in all about 
five years, and lived retired thereafter until his 
death, November, 1875. Mrs. B. is living here 
in Naperville. Five children, all of whom are 
living. He served as Road Commissioner in 
Naperville Township; also Assessor. Was a 
member of the Evangelical Church. Our sub- 
ject lived at home until the spring of 1851. 
when he went to Chicago and engaged as clerk 
in the general goods business, wholesale and 
retail, where he remained two years. He then 
determined to go to California, and went via 
New York and Nicaragua route, arriving at 
San Francisco March 24, 1853. Remained a 
little over two years, engaged in mining, and 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



had fair success. Returned to Naperville, and 
worked on the farm for four years. He had 
sent money home, which was invested in land, 
and had to wait until he improved it in order 
to realize upon it, which he did, and in 1860 
engaged as clerk for Mr. Yount, and continued 
about two years. He then, with his father, 
bought out the business of Mr. Yount, and 
continued about two years, when Mr. Brown, 
Sr., withdrew and Mr. E. Holler became 
a partner, and continued five years, Mr. M. 
Brown being the sole proprietor since. In 
1856, he married Miss Catharine C. Rickert, 
a native of Pennsylvania, who died in October, 
1869, leaving three children — Emma, Lincoln 
and Mary. In 1871, he married Miss Mary A. 
Barr, a native of Pennsylvania, who has borne 
two children — Clarence and Irvin. Has been 
connected with the Evangelical Church since 
1843. 

B. B. BOECKER, grain and coal dealer, 
Naperville, is a native of Prussia, born in 
1840, and lived in his native land about twenty- 
years ; received a fair education, including a 
high school course. At the age of sixteen, 
he began clerking, and at nineteen he went 
into the arm}- and served as volunteer one 
year. In 1860, he came to the United States 
and vicinity of Naperville, where a friend lived, 
and worked several years on a farm. He then 
went to Germany and married Miss Annie 
Ohn ; returned to Naperville and farmed two 
years. He then sold his farm and engaged 
in the lumber business and hay press ; con- 
tinued nine years ; sold out and bought his 
present business ; has served as Alderman and 
Mayor, and is now the Supervisor of Lisle 
Township. He deals in grain and coal, and is 
doing a very thriving business. He has three 
children —Theodore, Adolphine and Arnold. 
He is a Democrat. 

D. C. BUTLER, clerk, with W. Scott & Co., 
Naperville, was born in Burlington, Vt., in 
1825, son of Roswell and Ruth (Wordeu) But- 



ler, natives of Vermont, in which State they 
were married. Roswell Butler was engaged in 
the lumber business and conducted a farm. He 
was also interested in a paper-mill and a flour- 
mill ; he died about the 3 r ear 1830 ; his wife 
came West about 1849 or 1850, and lived in 
Naperville with her sister, Mrs: H. L. Peaslee, 
until her death, which occurred about the year 
1868. The subject of this sketch received a 
common school education, and afterward took 
an academic course. In May, 1838, he came 
to Naperville with his brother-in-law, Mr. H. L. 
Peaslee, and assisted in the latter's store till 
1840, when he returned to Vermont and at- 
tended school two years. He then moved to 
Chicago, where he clerked in a groceiy store 
two years ; thence to Naperville, and again en- 
gaged with Mr. Peaslee, remaining witli him 
until he sold out his business, about the year 
1853, and continuing on five years longer in the 
same store in the employ of Mr. Peaslee's suc- 
cessor. In 1858, he formed a partnership with 
H. L. Peaslee, and conducted a general store 
for a year. In 1861, he engaged as Sutler in 
the Eighth Illinois Cavalry, but afterward sold 
his business at Washington, D. C, to Col. Bev- 
eridge. and returned to Naperville and engaged 
in the hardware business two years. He after- 
ward engaged as clerk for Robert Naper tor 
two years, and for two years longer with Na- 
per's successors, then as book-keeper for the 
Chicago Ale and Malt Company four years. 
He then returned to Naperville, clerked two 
years in grocery business for L. G. Kent, and 
then engaged with W. Scott & Co., with which 
firm he has since been employed. In 1851. he 
married Freedom Herrick, a native of Vermont, 
who came to Naperville with her mother about 
the year 1849. Mr. Butler has been School 
Trustee two terms, and was President of the 
Board of Naperville for the year 1 862. 

DR. J. A. BELL, of the firm of Drs. Bell 
& Nauman, Naperville, is a native of Morgan 
County, Ohio, born March 19,1 838 ; came to 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



Illinois with his parents about the year 1853, 
and settled in Knox Count}*. He received his 
education at Hedding Seminary, of Abingdon, 
Knox County, and began reading medicine in 
1858 with Dr. Andrew McFarland, Superintend- 
ent of the Insane Asylum of Jasksonville, 111., 
under whose -tuition he remained until 1861. 
In that year, he enlisted in the Tenth Illinois 
Infantry ; was detailed as Assistant Surgeon 
in the general hospital at Cairo ; served in that 
capacity and on detached duty until December, 
1861 ; then served in the field until August, 
1862, when he resigned his position and re- 
turned to Jacksonville ; thence he went to 
Cambridge, 111., where he practiced his profes- 
sion until 1866, and in 1868 came to Naperville, 
where he has since been engaged in the practice 
of medicine ; since he came to Naperville, he 
has taken the degree of M. D. at the Hahne- 
mann Homoeopathic Medical College of Chicago. 
In 1861, he married Miss Elizabeth Eagle, a 
native of England, who came to the United 
States with her parents, and settled in the vi- 
cinity of Jacksonville, 111. From this union 
two children have been born. The Doctor is a 
member of the Illinois State ' Institute of 
Homoeopathy. 

BISHOP BARTHOLOMEW, farmer, P. O. 
Warrensville, is a native of Whitehall, Wash- 
ington Count}'. X. Y., and was born in the year 
1817 ; he was raised on the farm, and received 
a common school education. In 1837, he came 
West ; he went on the Erie Canal to Buffalo, to 
Detroit by the lakes, and, in company with sev- 
eral others, drove by team to Lake Michigan, 
thence to Chicago by boat ; he had $75 when 
he lauded in Chicago, and felt that he would 
not give his $75 for the town. He footed it to 
Naperville, and stopped with Mr. Z. Jones, who 
was formerly neighbor with him East. In 
1838, he married Elmina Jones, daughter of 
Mr. Z. Jones. She died about 1848. After 
his marriage, he farmed on shares a number 
of years, and then bought a place adjoining his 



present place, but afterward traded for his 
present place, where he has lived for the past 
twenty-eight years. In 1850, he married Miss 
Asenath McFerren, a native of Vermont ; they 
were married in New York, and came here to 
Du Page County. They have two children — 
Henry and Nettie. By the first marriage there 
were three children — Susan, Darius and Emma. 
He owns 200 acres of land located on river, 
three miles of Naperville. He is a Republican. 

AMOS BUTZ, farmer, P. 0. Naperville, is a 
native of Lehigh County, Penn.. born in the 
year 1811, was raised on the farm and received 
a common-school education. At the age of 
twenty-two, he married Esther Wenner, a native 
of Lehigh County, Penn. He lived at home 
until he was twenty-seven years of age, and then 
bought a place of his own, which he farmed 
until 1845; he then came West by team to 
Illinois, and stopped about a month at Naper- 
ville, where he bought his present place, and, 
except three years' residence in Naperville, has 
lived here since. He owns 116 acres, located 
one and a half miles northwest of Naperville. 
He is a Republican, and has served as School 
Director in his district for some ten or twelve 
years. By the marriage there have been six 
children, five of whom are living — Abigail. 
George, Owen W., Aaron, Eva Louise, Anna 
Eliza. He is a member of the Evangelical As- 
sociation since 1835. 

PHILIP BECKMAN, harness, hides and 
leather, Naperville, is a native of Bavaria, born 
in 1836, and received a common-school educa- 
tion up to the age of thirteen ; then apprenticed 
to his trade, and served three years, and came 
to America and stopped nearly two years in 
Cleveland ; thence to Chicago, where he worked 
for about five years. In 1859, he came to 
Naperville, worked as jour until April, 1864, for 
Martin Ward, when he bought him out, and 
continued to the present time. He married 
Miss Elizabeth Pfeiffer in Chicago, in 1858, a 
native of Germany. They have eight children 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



— Pauline, Carl, Mattie, Ellen, Libbie, Lula, 
Bernice and Philip, Jr. Is a Republican. 

ANTONI BAPST, retired blacksmith, Na- 
perville, was born September 25,1817, in Alsace, 
German}' ; is a son of Joseph and Ursal Bapst. 
He came to this county in 1846, and worked 
at the blacksmith's trade at Naperville, which 
he began at the age of sixteen. In 1862. he 
abandoned the business and moved on his 
present farm of eighty acres, near the village, 
in Naperville Township. He was for a few 
years engaged in a grocery store in Naperville ; 
was married in 1849 to Caroline Coonej 7 , who 
blessed him with nine children, viz. : Mary, 
Fannie, Joseph, Antoni, Carrie, Frank, Louisa, 
Annie and Helen. He and wife are the arti- 
ficers of their own fortune, having started their 
married life with $20. They are members of 
the Catholic Church. 

HON. HIRAM H. CODY, P. 0. Naperville, 
is a native of Vernon Center, Oneida Co., N. Y. 
He was born June 11, 1824, and is the son of 
Hiram Cody and Huldah, nee Hitchcock. His 
paternal grandparents, Samuel Cody and Su- 
sannah, n6e Carroll, were among the pioneers 
of Oneida County. The former was a soldier 
in the Revolutionary army ; the latter, with 
pardonable pride, traced her lineage to Charles 
Carroll, of Carrollton. His maternal grand- 
parents, David Hitchcock and Mercy, nee Gil- 
bert, formerly of Connecticut, but during many 
years residents of Hamilton, Madison Co., N. 
Y., were universally respected for their many 
virtues. Hiram's parents took a deep interest 
in his early eduaction, and intended to give 
him the advantage of a thorough course of study 
in Hamilton College, five miles from their home. 
Their design was that he should enter the legal 
profession, and in all his instruction, both at 
school and under private tuition, this purpose 
was kept in view, and, being well known to him, 
made a very deep impression upon his hopes 
and aspirations for the future. A sad disap- 
pointment, however, awaited him. His father, 



who was engaged in mercantile business, was 
by a sudden reverse of fortune compelled to re- 
sume the occupation of his early life, that of 
shoemaking. Hiram, the eldest of the five 
children, then about sixteen years of age, was 
expecting to enter an advanced class in college 
the following year, instead, however, he volun- 
tarily left his school and assisted his father in 
the support of the fainilj', pursuing his studies 
afterward to some extent under private instruc- 
tion. This circumstance, though it seemed a 
great calamity, and the destroyer of his highest 
hopes and aspirations proved to him a blessing 
in disguise, by inducing his removal to the 
West and settlement in Illinois. In 1843, with 
his father's family, he removed to Lisbon, Ken- 
dall Co., 111., and one year later the family set- 
tled at Bloomingdale, Du Page County. In 
1847. Mr. Cody removed to Naperville, having 
been elected Clerk of the County Commissoners' 
Court of Du Page County. Two years later, 
upon the adoption of the constitution of 1848, 
he was nominated by acclamation, and in 1849 
elected the first Count} - Clerk of said county, 
and during the six years he held the office 
he applied himself to the study of law. and 
finally, was admitted to the bar, after which 
he retired from public life and devoted him- 
self to his profession. Politically, his views 
were Democratic, but during the war of the re- 
bellion his earnest efforts and eloquent appeals 
in behalf of the Union cause will ever be re- 
membered by his fellow-citizens, aud it was to 
these that Du Page County was largely indebt- 
ed for her brilliant record made during the war. 
In 1861, in a convention assembled without 
distinction of party, he was nominated and af- 
terward almost unanimously elected County 
Judge of Du Page County. In 1869, he was 
elected a delegate to the Constitutional Con- 
vention, and was one of its most useful mem- 
bers, being elected by votes irrespective of 
party. He acted with a small number of inde- 
pendents who in the convention really held the 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



balance of power, which they so used that party 
spirit was more nearly banished from that as- 
sembly than from any deliberative legislative 
body that ever convened in Illinois. He was 
the chairman of the important committee on 
Revision and Adjustment. In 1874, he was 
elected to succeed the Hon. S. Wilcox as Judge 
of the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Illinois (com- 
posed of the counties of Kane, Du Page and 
Kendall) by the largest majority ever given in 
the circuit, every town in his" own county giv- 
ing him a majority, and in the three south 
towns, which have been his home since 1847, 
out of a total vote of 1,021 he received 1,007. 
During his official term as Circuit Judge, the 
Appellate Court was organized and the State 
redistricted, the counties of Lake, McHeury, 
De Kalb and Boone being combined with Kane, 
Du Page and Kendall, forming what is now 
known as the Twelfth Judicial District. At 
the end of his term, the Republicans of the new 
circuit held a convention and nominated a party 
ticket for the three Judges then to be elected, 
which resulted in the retirement of Judge Cody 
from the bench, though he was largely sup- 
ported as an independent candidate b}- those who 
were opposed to making political nominations 
for judicial offices. Although the district had 
a Republican majority of about 12,000, and 
was well organized, the Judge lacked but about 
2,000 votes of being successful against the 
regular party nomination. Immediately after 
the election in 1879, he commenced the practice 
of his profession in Chicago, having formed a 
copartnership with Messrs. E. II. and N. E. 
Gary, the firm being as Gary, Cody & Gary, 
and having an extended and rapidly growing 
practice. In the fall of 18S0, Judge Cody was 
nominated by the Democrats first for the office 
of State Senator for the Fourteenth Senatorial 
District, and soon after for Representative in 
Congress for the First Congressional District, 
both of which nominations he declined. As a 
Judge, he was peculiarly free from prejudices, 



and his thorough investigation of the law, his 
) clear perceptions and his careful, deliberate 
and correct opinions made for him a most en- 
viable reputation at home or abroad. During 
his whole term as County Judge, no appeal was 
ever taken from his decisions, and of the ap- 
peals taken during his term as Circuit Judge 
over 81 per cent were affirmed by the Supreme 
Court. Judge Cody was married, December 
31, 1846, to Miss Philomela E. Sedgwick, 
daughter of Parker Sedgwick, M. D., formerly 
of Lowell, Oneida Co., N. Y., but since 1843 a 
resident of Du Page County, 111., where he is 
widely known as an eminent and successful 
physician. Mrs. Cody is a lady of intelligence 
and refinement, esteemed for her earnest piety 
and her true womanly qualities ; a devoted 
wife and fond mother. They have from early 
life both been members of the Congregational 
Church. 

HARLOW CROSIER, farmer, P. O. Naper- 
ville, 111., is a native of Berkshire County, 
Mass., born in the year 1812 ; was raised on 
the farm and received a common-school edu- 
cation. At the age of twenty, he apprenticed 
to the carpenter's trade, and the next year be- 
gan drawing wages. In 1837, he went to Ohio 
and clerked in a tavern in Mentor, and in 1839 
he married Miss Mary S. Nowlen, a native of 
New York, and soon after the marriage came 
to Naperville, 111., and the next year began 
farming near the village, and about two years 
later came to his present place, where he has 
lived since. During his residence here, he has 
worked alternately between farming and build- 
ing, he having built most of the buildings in 
this vicinitj - . By the marriage there were six 
children, of whom five are living. Mr. Crosier 
is a Republican in politics. He owns eighty- 
six acres, located on the railroad, three miles 
west of Naperville. 

NATHANIEL CRAMPTON. farmer, P. O. 
Naperville, was born in Connecticut in 1815 ; 
was raised on the farm, received a verv limited 



8 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



education,jand at the age of twelve years moved 
to Benson, Vt, with his parents. On attaining 
his majority, he came West, and stopped with 
Robert Strong, who lives in Will County, 111., 
near the Du Page County line. Here he re- 
mained for a time, assisting in the erection of 
a barn ; then went to St. Charles and took a 
claim, which he sold next season ; then came 
to this county. Here he bought for $400 a 
claim of 1G0 acres, located four miles west of 
Naperville, on the Naperville & Oswego road, 
where he lived until 1878, when he retired from 
farm life and moved to Naperville, where he 
has since resided. On the farm is a fine grove, 
which Mr. Crampton set out about the year 
1870. In 1839, he married Lucy Dudley, a 
native of Connecticut. They have had five 
children, three of whom are living, viz. : Mil- 
ton, Rosetta and May. Mr. Crampton is a 
zealous member of the Congregational Church ; 
has held the office of Supervisor for his town- 
ship and President of the Du Page County 
Agricultural Society. 

EDGAR G. CRANE, farmer, P. 0. Eola, 
111., is a native of Naperville Township, Du 
Page Co., 111. He was born in the year 1837, 
and is the third of seven children born to David 
and Catharine W. (Stolp) Crane, who were na- 
tives of Wayne County, N. Y. They came West 
in 1835, and settled on the present place, where 
he lived until his death, June 2, 1849. Mrs. 
Crane lived on the place a number of years, 
when she married Mr. Edgar Galloway, and 
moved to Wayne County, N. Y., where she now 
lives. Our subject was raised on the farm ; he 
received a common-school course of study. On 
becoming of age, he went by team to California, 
and lived there and in Oregon for seven years. 
He was principally engaged in mining. In 
18GG, he returned home, and, in the spring of 
1867, went to Montana and mined for a year and 
a half ; he then returned and bought out the 
heirs to the place. In Januaiy, 1869, he mar- 
ried Miss Salinda M. Griswold, a native of 



Wayne County, N. Y. B3 - the marriage there 
have been five children, of whom three are liv- 
ing — George S., Edith May and Charles P. He 
owns 243 acres located on the west county line, 
three miles northeast of Aurora. 

W. M. CRAMPTON, farmer, P. 0. Naper- 
ville, is a native of Du Page County, 111., born 
in the year 1844, and is the third of five chil- 
dren born to Nathaniel and Lucy H. (Dudley) 
Crampton. Our subject was raised on the pres- 
ent place, and received a common-school and 
academic course of study. In 1862, he entered 
the Post Quartermaster's Department as clerk, 
and was located at Springfield, Mo. In 1864, 
he enlisted in the One Hundred and Fifty-sixth 
Illinois Infantry, Company D, and became Ser- 
geant of his company, and served until the close 
of the war, when he came home and occupied 
one of his father's farms, adjoining the present, 
and farmed there until 1873, when he went by 
railroad to California, and lived there for five 
years, during which time he was engaged as a 
clerk with the Central Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany, and located at Oakland and San Fran- 
cisco, though he always lived in the latter 
place. He then returned East, and occupied 
the present place, where he has lived since. In 
1869, he married Miss Minnie A. Kimball, a na- 
tive of Wisconsin ; she came to Naperville, 111., 
with her parents. By the marriage, there are 
two children — Genevieve and Florence. Mr. 
Crampton is Republican in politics. In Janu- 
ary, 1882, he was elected President of the Du 
Page County Agricultural Society. 

M. C. DUDLEY, attorney, Naperville, is a 
native of Oswego, N. Y., born October 7, 1820, 
and is the fifth of a family of nine children 
born to Asa and Levina (Olcott) Dudley, who 
were natives of Vermont and Connecticut. In 
May, 1839, he with his family, wife and five chil- 
dren, came West and settled in Bloomingdale 
Township, where one of his married daughters, 
Mrs. Kent lived. He occupied a piece of laud 
and took the claim and bought of Government, 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



and farmed the same. Mrs. D. died in winter 
1SG2-3, after which he lived with his children, 
and in 1868 died at the home of his daughter, 
i]':ir Norwood Park, in Cook County. He was 
aged eighty-three, and was one of the early 
County Collectors ; was a Baptist. Our sub- 
ject was educated in New York, principally. 
Pie early began clerking in a general merchan- 
dise store. At first, when he came West, he 
assisted on the farm, and began teaching ; he 
then worked about two years in a store at 
Peoria, when he returned home and married 
Miss Lucinda Willey, a resident of Du Page 
County ; then entered a claim and followed 
farming until 1853, when he was elected County 
Clerk, and served until 1861. During the 
latter part of his term he, in company with 
David Hate, engaged in general merchandising 
in Naperville, firm of M. C. Dudley & Co., and 
continued until about 1868, when the business 
was closed up. In 1869, Mr. D. was elected 
County Judge, serving until 1873, since which 
time he has practiced his profession. During 
his terms of office, he read law, and was ad- 
mitted to practice. While County Judge, he 
was appointed Master in Chancery. His busi- 
ness is principally in that and the County 
Court. He has had born to him five children, 
three of whom are dead, the other two, daugh- 
ters, are living, Ida and Eva. He is a Baptist 
and a Republican. 

ELI H. DITZLER, Naperville, of the firm 
of Ditzler & Hosier, dealers in general mer- 
chandise, was born in Stark County, Ohio, in 
1841, second child of a family of four born to 
Jonathan and Esther (Alspaugh) Ditzler, natives 
of Pennsylvania. Jonathan Ditzler, who was a 
carpenter by trade, removed with his family to 
this county iu 1844 or 1845, and settled in 
Naperville, where he followed his trade until 
his death, which occurred September 18, 1880. 
His wife is still living on the old homestead. 
Our subject received a fair education, and at 
the age of fifteen engaged as clerk in the gen- 



eral store of W. Scott & Co., where he remained 
until 1861. In that year, he enlisted in Com- 
pany E. Eighth Illinois Cavalry. Heserved three 
years, during which time he participated in the 
battles of Beverly Ford, Rappahannock Station, 
Fair Oaks. Gettysburg, Boonesboro, and all the 
other engagements in which his regiment took 
part. During his last year of service, he was 
detailed as Orderly to Gen. Chapman. In Oc- 
tober, 1864, he returned to Naperville and re- 
sumed his former occupation until February, 
1867, when he formed a partnership with 
Joseph Hilligas in a general merchandising 
business. In 1870, Mr. Hilligas sold his in- 
terest in the business to Alvin Scott, who, in 
1873, sold to Mr. Hosier, the business being 
since conducted under the firm name of Ditzler 
& Hosier. In the spring of 1882, he was ap- 
pointed Treasurer of Lisle Township; has 
served as Village Treasurer for some time. In 
1870, he married Celia A. Babcock, a native of 
Ohio, and at the time of her marriage a res- 
ident of Cook County, 111., who has borne him 
six children, viz.: Hugh W., H. lone, Wenona 
A., Guy E., L} man B., J. Elmo and Bell Eloise. 
Mr, Ditzler is a Republican, and polled his first 
vote while in the army. 

XAVIER DRENDEL, farmer, P. 0. Naper- 
ville, is a native of Alsace, France, now Ger- 
many, and was born in the year 1829. He was 
brought up a farmer, and received a common 
school education. He came to the United 
States of America in the year 1846 with his 
parents. Xavier and Theresa (Rhode) Drendel ; 
they were natives of France, and settled in 
Milton Township, Du Page Co., 111., and they 
lived there a number of years, and then moved 
to a farm near by, located in Lisle Township, 
where he died February 15, 1872. Mrs. Dren- 
del owns the old homestead in Lisle, and lives 
with her son-in-law, Mr. Swartz. Our subject 
was seventeen years of age when his folks 
came to the United States of America ; he lived 
at home with his parents until he was twenty- 



10 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 






five years of age, when he went to California 
and lived there two years ; he followed mining, 
and met with fair success ; he went via Pana- 
ma, and returned by the Nicaragua route. In 
the fall of 1857, he married Miss Elizabeth 
Winkler, a native of Alsace, Prance ; she came 
to the United States of America with her parents 
in 1845, and settled in Will County, 111. By 
the marriage there have been eight children, 
seven of whom are living, four boys and three 
girls. After his marriage, he lived on the old 
homestead, and in 1869 came to his present 
place, and has lived there since. He owns 200 
acres of land located two miles west of Naper- 
ville. He is a Democrat. 

ft. H. DICKINSON, farmer, P. 0. Naper- 
ville, is a native of Otsego County, N. Y., born 
in the year 1834 ; he was raised on the farm 
and received a common school education, and 
taught a short period, on becoming of age. He 
began business on his own account as news 
man, and two years later he became Deputy 
Route Agent on the Syracuse, Binghamton & 
New York Railroad, which position he held 
until 1801, when he enlisted in the Twenty- 
seventh New York Volunteer Infantry, Com- 
pany D, and served two years. He was in the 
first battle of Bull Run and Gaine's Mills. After 
his first year's service he was detailed as Mail 
Agent under Gen. Slocum. After he was mus- 
tered out, he remained with the command as 
News Agent a number of months. He returned 
home and engaged with the United States Ex- 
press Company and resided in Binghamton, 
and in the spring of 1868 came West prospect- 
ing, and in August following located on his 
present place. In 1863, he married Miss Edna 
R. Bennett, a native of Broome County, N. Y. 
They have two children — Lewis E. and Lee A. 
He owns 100 acres located on the railroad, two 
miles west of Naperville. 

JOHN DRISSLER, grocer, Naperville, is a 
native of Lehigh County, Penn., born in 1813. 
His parents were poor and his education was 



limited to one month's attendance at the dis- 
trict school. When about twelve years of age, 
began working among his neighbors. When 
he became eighteen years of age, he appren- 
ticed to the blacksmith trade, at which he 
served two years and a half; then engaged in 
farming a few years, after which he followed 
teaming about ten years. In 1845, he came to 
Naperville, where he worked a farm on shares, 
and also engaged in teaming to Chicago. From 
1S51 to 1865, he was engaged in the furniture 
business, keeping also a stock of groceries, and 
in 1865 sold out the furniture stock, and en- 
gaged in the grocery business exclusively. In 
1876, he sold out his business, and in 1880 
opened his present place, where he has since 
been engaged in the grocery trade. In 1835, 
he married Mary Gilbert, a native of Pennsyl- 
vania, who died March 8, 1872, leaving one 
child — William, now a member of the police 
force in Chicago. In May, 1874, he married 
Mrs. Mary Raisley, formerly Miss Mary Stucker 
a native of Pennsylvania. She is the mother 
of five children, one boy and four girls, by her 
first marriage. Mr. Drissler is an adherent of 
the Republican part} - . 

GEORGE EHRHARDT, boots and shoes, 
Naperville, of the firm of Ehrhardt & Brother, 
dealers in boots and shoes, was born in Alsace, 
France, now Gerrnairy. He was apprenticed 
to the shoemaker's trade at the age of fifteen, 
and served three years. He then worked at his 
trade till twenty years of age, when he entered 
the French Army. While in the army, he 
worked at his trade for his regiment, remaining 
till 1852, when he emigrated to the United 
States. In the spring of 1853, he came to 
Naperville, where he has since remained, en- 
gaged in the boot ane shoe business, in part- 
nership with his jounger brother, Jacob, whose 
sketch appears elsewhere in this work. In 
1858, he married Louisa Kagler, a native of 
Alsace, France, now Germany, who has borne 
him two children — Julia and Carolina. Mr. 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



11 



Ehrhardt is a Democrat and a member of the 
Lutheran Evangelical Church. 

JACOB EHRHARDT, boots and shoes, is 
a native of Alsace, France, born in 1831. At 
the age of fifteen, he was apprenticed to the 
shoemaker's trade, at which he served three 
years. He then worked with his father until 
1854. In that year, he emigrated to the United 
States, and joined his brother, George, in Na- 
perville, with whom, after working a few years 
at his trade, he entered into partnership in the 
boot and shoe business. In 1864, the brothers 
built a store in Naperville. where the}' have 
since carried on a retail boot and shoe busi- 
ness, doing a good trade. He married, in 1868, 
Mary Catherine Sturm, a native of Alsace. 
From this union three children have been born, 
viz. : Emilia, Minnie and Henry. Mr. Ehr- 
hardt has held the office of City Trustee. He 
is a Republican and a member of the Lutheran 
Evangelical Church. 

JOHN EHRHARDT, of the firm of J. Ehr- 
hardt & Co., manufacturers and retail dealers 
in boots and shoes, is a native of Alsace, France 
(now Germany), born September 12, 1841. His 
father was a shoemaker, and subject learned 
that trade, beginning when fourteen years of 
age. In 1859, subject came to the United 
States, and settled in Naperville, where his 
brothers, who had preceded him, then lived. 
He worked at his trade with his brother till 
July, 1861, when he enlisted in Company C, 
Seventh Illinois Infantry, was chosen Corporal 
of his company, and remained in service until 
the close of the war. He participated in 
the engagements of Fort Donelson, Pittsburg 
Landing, Corinth, was in the Atlanta cam- 
paign, the " march to the sea " and through 
the Carolinas, and was with Gen. Corse at Ala- 
toona Pass. In 1865, he returned to Naper- 
ville, worked at his trade till 1873 ; then opened 
a shop and engaged in business, in company 
with Mr. Gushart. In 1867, he married Maria 
Nadelhoffer, who was born in A.Isace and came 



to the United States in 1860. They are the 
parents of two children, one of whom is liv- 
ing, viz., Maria S. Mr. Ehrhardt is a member 
of the German Lutheran Church. He is a Re- 
publican. 

HON. LEWIS ELLSWORTH, agriculturist, 
P. 0. Naperville, is a son of Nathan and Bet- 
sey B. (Palmer) Ellsworth. He was born at 
Walpole, N. H., July 22, 1805, and lived in his 
native State until his eighteenth year, when he 
moved to Rutland County, Vt., where he learned 
the tailor's trade. In 1827, he went to Troy, 
N. Y., and engaged in the merchant tailoring 
business. In 1836, he sold his business and 
made a trip West, buying an improved Govern- 
ment claim of some four or five hundred acres, 
and in 1837 he opened a general store in Na- 
perville. During this year, he also built a 
frame house on his land, and occupied the 
same with his family in October. In 1848, he 
sold his general store business, and in 1850 en- 
gaged in the nursery business, which he has con- 
ducted until the present time. In December, 
1828, he married Miss Chloe M. Skinner, a na- 
tive of New Lebanon, N. Y. She died October 
16, 1876. Of the five children, two are living. 
In 1839, Mr. Ellsworth was elected the first 
Probate Judge of Du Page County, and served 
four years. He is deeply concerned in the sub- 
ject of agriculture, and from its earliest days 
in Illinois he has taken a leading part. He was 
one of the incorporators of the Union Agricult- 
ural Society (which was the first held in 
Northern Illinois) and subsequently became its 
Vice President and President. He was one of 
the organizers of the county society and also 
one of the constituent, members of the State 
Agricultural Society organized at Springfield 
in 1853, and served as its President during the 
years 1859-60; also at present a member of 
the State Board of Agriculture. 

WILLIAM FEY, farmer, P. O.. Naperville, 
was born October 7, 1819, in Schuylkill County. 
Penn. ; is the son of Rudolph and Eve (Sn3-dei) 



12 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



Fey. natives, the former the same county as 
the subject, and the latter Bucks County. 
They were the parents of five children, viz. : 
William, George, Joseph, Paul and Lewis. The 
father was a weaver by trade ; the parents 
were Lutherans. Mr. Fey had some school 
advantages and has always been a farmer ; was 
married, in 1841, to Esther Hoy, the union re- 
sulting in eleven children, all of whom are liv- 
ing — Albert, Henry, William, Lydia (Mrs. 
Abert Rickert, who died December 11, 1877), 
Laura (Mrs. Charles Letter), Elizabeth (Mrs. 
Henry Houser). Emma (Mrs. Joseph Good), 
George, Lewis, Morgan and Anna. Our sub- 
ject came to Illinois in 185-1, settling at Naper- 
ville, and soon after rented a farm in Lisle 
Township. In 1855, he bought 145 acres, a 
part of his present farm of 251, on which he 
settled and has remained since. He started 
with scarcely anything but stout hands and a 
willing heart, having experienced many hard- 
ships in Pennsylvania. He has been no office 
seeker, yet has served in some of the smaller 
offices. He has always been a temperance ad- 
vocate, and has reared his large family without 
the use of coffee or tea. He nor none of his 
boys ever used tobacco, a very rare case 
indeed. The family are members of the Evan- 
gelical Association at Naperville ; vote the Re- 
publican ticket. 

THOMAS FINLEY, dealer in ice, Naper- 
ville, was born in Massachusetts in 1822. Is 
the second child of a family of seven children 
born to Alexander and Elizabeth (McCray) Fin- 
ley, natives of the North of Ireland. Alexander 
Finley, subject's father, came to the United 
States with his wife and one child about the 
year 1821, landed at Boston, Mass., and settled 
in Meadville, Penn. In 1839, came to Naper- 
ville, where he followed farming, and died in 
1856 ; his wife died in 1858. Subject received 
a common-school education, and lived with his 
parents on the farm till 1850, when he organ- 
ized a company of thirteen men, and went by 



the overland route to California, where he re- 
mained four years engaged in mining. He then 
returned home, but soon after started on his 
second trip to California, taking with him forty- 
four horses, of which number he had but seven 
when he reached his destination, the rest hav- 
ing either died or been stolen on the way. 
After remaining in California three 3 - ears en- 
gaged in mining, he returned home in 1857, 
bought a farm in York Township, this county, 
occupied it three years, then sold it and bought 
a place near Warrenville, this county, where 
he farmed for six years, then sold out and came 
to his present place, where he has since fol- 
lowed farming. In 1875, he built an ice-house, 
and has since been engaged in the ice business. 
In 1858, he married Mrs. Butterfield, formerly 
Miss Ann Benuett, a native of this county, her 
father being one of the pioneer settlers ; they 
have a family of three children — Charles H., 
Samuel A. and Frances. Mr. Finley is a 
supporter of the Democratic party. 

JOSEPH S. FERRY, farmer, P. 0. Aurora, 
111., is a native of Washington County, N. Y.; 
he was born in the year 1829, and is the young- 
est of three children born to Sylvanus and 
Rhoda (Wilson) Ferry ; they were natives of 
Massachusetts and New York. He was a tan- 
ner, and moved to New York when a young 
man, and married there. In the spring of 1 835, 
they moved to Terre Haute, Ind., and occupied 
a place belonging to his brother-in-law, and 
worked at his trade in the town. In 1838, they 
moved to Warrensville, in Du Page Co., 111., 
and rented his brother-in-law's (Joseph Wilson's) 
place. The next year he bought a claim, and 
soon afterward Mr. Ferry died. The family 
continued on the place until about 1845, and 
Mrs. Ferry lived with her son thereafter until 
her death in 1879. Our subject was raised on 
the farm, and received but a limited course of 
study in the district schools. When he was 
sixteen years of age, he bought, with the help 
of his uncle, fifty-three acres of land, and, with 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



13 



his mother and sister, occupied the place, which 
he farmed with a yoke of oxen. About 1850, 
he sold the place and bought 120 acres close 
by, and farmed it until 1868, when he moved to 
Aurora to obtain school facilities for his family, 
and lived there six years, during which time he 
built and sold property. He then came to his 
present place, and has lived here since. He 
owns 600 acres, which is divided into three ad- 
joining farms, located two and a half to three 
miles east of Aurora. In 1855, he married Miss 
Sophronia B. Kenyon, a native of Washington 
County, N. Y. She came to Du Page County, 
111., with her parents about 1853. They have 
three children — Adelaide, Jennie and William. 
Mr. F. attributes his success to industry and 
economy. He is a Republican in politics. 

ROBERT FREEMAN, retired, Naperville, 
was born in Meadville, Penn., February 21, 
1809. He learned the trade of carpenter and 
joiner, and in 1833 moved to Chicago, where 
he followed his trade for ten years, after which 
he moved to his farm, located in Du Page and 
Will Counties, part of which he had bought as 
early as 1837. He followed farming until 
1876, when he built his present elegant brick 
residence. Mr. Freeman has been thrice mar- 
ried — in 1841, to Miss Adaline Bordman, a na- 
tive of New York ; she died September 10, 
1859 ; of their children, two are living — 
Mrs. Emma M. Wescott, of Naperville, and 
Eliza Jane Morris, of Keya Paha, Nebraska. 
He married, December 11, 1861, Miss C. J. 
Dewey, a native of New York ; she died 
March 14, 1866, leaving two children — Arthur 
R. and Ella C, living at home. The present 
Mrs. Freeman, formerly Mrs. Brown, is a na- 
tive of Du Page County, 111.; her maiden name 
was Miss F. B. Wescott. By the present mar- 
riage there is one child— Jessie. Though not 
an office holder, Mr. Freeman has been an act- 
ive partisan, an Old-Line Whig, a strong anti- 
slavery man, and a Republican in politics. In 
1820. he became a Presbvterian and continued 



in his faith until he came to Naperville, when 
he joined the Episcopalian Church, in the af- 
fairs of which he has taken an active interest 
1». X. GK< )SS. merchant, Naperville, is a na- 
tive of this county, born in Lisle Township 
December 11, 1837, and is the sixth child of a 
family of seven born to George Conrad and 
Salome (Dather) Gross, natives of Bavaria, 
Germany, he born in Limberg, in July, 1796, 
she in Giersbach, July 13, 1804. George Con- 
rad Gross was married in his native land, May 
28, 1825, where two of his children were born. 
Iu 1832, he, with his family, emigrated to the 
United States, and located in Pennsylvania, 
where he followed farming until 1835 ; then 
came to Illinois and settled on a farm in Lisle 
Township, this county, where he lived until 
1844, when he moved to a farm in the town of 
Naperville, where he died in March, 1850. His 
widow, a number of years after his death, mar- 
ried Jacob Snibley, anil lived in Lisle Town- 
ship until her death in May, 1864. Our subject 
began Working for himself at the age of fifteen, 
and lived with his brother. When seventeen 
years old, he was apprenticed to the carpenter 
and joiner trade, and served with the late John 
Collins, of Naperville, three and one-half years, 
and, having learned his trade, worked with his 
employer until the breaking-out of the late 
war. In September, 1861, he enlisted in Com- 
pany E. Eighth Illinois Cavalry, was detailed 
as Orderly to Gen. Sumner, and served until 
Jnne 30, 1862, when he was wounded in the 
battle of White Oak Swamp, Va., and remained 
in the hospital in Baltimore until December 13, 
1862, when he was discharged, the severity of 
his wound having necessitated the amputation 
of his foot. During his term of service, he par- 
ticipated in the engagements of Yorktown, 
Williamsburg, on the Chickahominy, Fair Oaks. 
Savage Station, being wounded the last day of 
the Seven Days' fight. Mr. Gross was an eye 
witness of the naval battle between the Merri- 
mac and the Monitor. On deing discharged, 



14 



BIOGRAPHICAL : 



he returned to Naperville. In 1863, was 
elected Count}* Treasurer. Was elected to that 
office three terms, but, owing to the removal of 
the county seat, served but five years. In 
1869, he received the appointment of Postmas- 
ter, which position he held until the spring of 
1882, when he bought a mercantile business in 
Brownsville, Mo., which he conducts at the 
present time, though he still retains his resi- 
dence in Naperville. He married, January 4, 
1 864, Mary E. Dudley, a native of Lisle Town- 
ship, this county. They have five children — 
Bertha C, Cheeny C, Dean D., Mary S. and 
Fred A., and also living with the family, Ade- 
line M. Smith, an adopted child of Mrs. Dud- 
ley. Mrs. Gross' sister, now a missionary, will 
also become one of the family. Her mother, 
whose maiden name was Mary Barrows, organ- 
ized and taught the first public school in Chi- 
cago. 

HOWARD H. GOODRICH, attorney, Na- 
perville, is a native of this count}*, born in Lisle 
Township September 25, 1852, was raised on 
the farm, and attended the district schools till 
he was seventeen years of age, when he en- 
tered the Beloit, Wis., College, which he at- 
tended one year, then, upon the removal of the 
Northwestern College to Naperville, he entered 
. that institution, where he completed his classi- 
cal course, graduating in 1876 with the degree 
of M. A., and the honor of valedictorian of 
his class. After his graduation he taught dis- 
trict schools one term. In the spring of 1877, 
he began reading law with Judge H. H. Cody, 
and the 9ame year attended the Union College 
of Law, Chicago ; in 1879, he passed an exam- 
ination by the Appellate Court, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar by the Supreme Court in ses- 
sion at Mount Vernon, 111. In 1880, he received 
the degree of A. M. Began the practice of his 
profession at Naperville, and soon after entered 
into partnership with Samuel W. Smith, who 
however withdrew from the partnership Janu- 
uary 1, 1882, and went to Iowa. Mr. Goodrich 



is the eldest child of a family of four born to 
Charles H. and P. Jaue (Turner) Goodrich. 

FRANK S. GETSCH, of the firm of Strauss 
& Getsch, manufacturers of the Naperville 
plows, Naperville, is a native of this county, 
born in Milton Township in October, 1850, 
third child of a family of six children born to 
Anthony and Philisitus (Hilts) Getsch, resi- 
dents of this county ; subject was raised on 
the farm, and at twelve years of age hired 
out by the month, and worked on the farm of 
L. Meacuam a year and three months : thence 
to Kankakee County, III., where he worked on 
a farm for a year. He then returned home, 
where he remained a year ; then in 1865 en- 
listed in Company H, Twenty-third Illinois In- 
fantry, and remained in service till the close of 
the war ; then came home, and worked on a 
fai*m till 1866, when he went to Danby (now 
Prospect Park). There he apprenticed to the 
blacksmith trade, at which he served three 
years and four months, then came to Naper- 
ville, where he worked in the fork shops; worked 
a year in plow works in Chicago, also a year in 
South Elgin Fork Shops, and finally in 1876, 
became partner in present business. In May, 
1876, he married Frances Bapst, a native of 
Naperville ; they have two children, viz., Will- 
iam and Edwin. 

DAVID B. GIVLER, editor Clarion, Naper- 
ville, is a native of Ashland County, Ohio ; born 
November 20, 1841, and is the fifth in a family of 
seven children born to Solomon and Leah 
(Brown) Givler. They were natives of Lan- 
caster County, Penu.; he was a farmer and 
moved to Ohio, settling on a farm in Wayne 
County ; thence to Ashland County, where they 
farmed until 1851 ; then came to Illinois, and 
settled on a farm in the vicinity of Naperville, 
where he lived until his death, in December, 
1868. He took an active interest in politics, 
and was a Republican ; member of the Evan- 
gelical Church. Mrs. Givler is living in Na- 
perville with her son, David B. Our subject 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



15 



was raised on the farm, where he lived until 
1861, when he enlisted in the Seventh Illinois 
Infantry, Company C ; served during the war ; 
was in the battles of Fort Henry, Fort Douel- 
son, Pittsburg Landing, Corinth, Alatoona Pass 
and the Atlanta campaign, and was with Sher- 
man at the surrender of Johnston. He returned 
in 1 865. and farmed for one year; he then worked 
as clerk in the grain warehouse at Naperville 
one year. In 1868, he bought the Du Page 
( 'ounty Press, and has published since, having, 
in 1869, changed the name to the Naperville 
Clarion-. January 24, 1864, he married Miss 
Abbie Matter, a native of Pennsylvania. (Mr. 
G. married while home from the army on fur- 
lough.) They have six children, three sons and 
three daughters. Mr. G. has served as Justice 
of the Peace, Police Magistrate, Collector, etc., 
etc. 

WALTER L. GOOD, Naperville, house and 
carriage painter, is a native of Lehigh County, 
Penn., born in 1843 ; son of Charles and Mary 
Ann (Miller) Good, natives of Lehigh County. 
Penn., and who were the parents of eleven 
children, subject being the third. Charles 
Good, subject's father, was raised on a farm ; 
learned the tailoring trade. In 1846, he came 
to Naperville, where he learned the painter's 
trade, which he followed until his death, which 
occurred in Naperville in the spring of 1867 ; 
his widow married Mr. Jacob Trumbauer, and 
now resides in Polo, Ogle County, 111. Walter 
L. was raised in Naperville, received a fair ed- 
ucation, and, when eleven years of age, began 
working with his father at the painter's trade, 
remaining till he was seventeen years of age. 
He then went to Chicago, where he worked for 
three j'ears ; then enlisted in Company H, 
Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry ; was chosen Cor- 
poral ; afterward promoted to a Sergeancy, and 
mustered out after a two years' service. His 
regiment operated principally in Missouri, and, 
though in no pitched battles, was constantly 
employed among the guerrillas ; was ten weeks 



on the Price raid, fighting in the battles of Lex- 
ington, Independence and others. At the end 
of his service, he returned to Naperville and 
worked at his trade, with his father, until the 
death of the latter, since which time he has 
worked on his own account. In 1867, he mar- 
ried Sarah Rickert, a native of Geneva, 111., 
who has borne him one child — Charles W. Mr. 
Good has held the office of Village Trustee for 
some time ; he is a Republican. 

MICHAEL HINES, Naperville, Justice of 
the Peace, was born in Londonderry, Ireland. 
April 9, 1803, son of Michael and Jane (Walk- 
er) Hines, who emigrated to Canada and set- 
tled on a farm near the Vermont State line. 
At the age of eighteen years, our subject was 
apprenticed in Montreal, Canada, to his trade, 
and served three years. He then worked for a 
time at Grand Isle, in Lake Champlain, and 
in Vermont. In 1834, he came West, stopped 
in Chicago about a year, and, in 1835, came to 
Naperville, and engaged in business in part- 
nership with a friend, Samuel Talmadge. He 
afterward bought out Talmadge's interest, and 
continued business alone, being very success- 
ful ; he built several stores on water street, 
which were swept away in the ice gorge during 
the big flood, his loss being over $10,000. He 
married Lucetta Stephens daughter of Capt. 
John Stephens, who was one of the old pioneers 
of this county, and who served during the 
Black Hawk war ; they have had five children, 
of whom three are living — Thomas S., agent of 
the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad at 
Moline, 111. ; has been in the employ of that com- 
pany since his discharge from the army ; he 
served three years in the Eighth Illinois Cav- 
alry ; Mrs. Holman,of Creston, Iowa ; and Mrs. 
Smith, of Naperville. In March, 1850, he started 
by the overland route for California, in company 
with Stephen J. Scott, and accomplished the 
journej- in four months and seventeen days. 
After mining for two years in California, he re- 
turned home via the Isthmus of Panama and 



16 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



New York ; while on the way, he bought a par- 
rot in the city of Menargo, said to be at that 
time forty-two 3 T ears old. This parrot lived 
with the family in Naperville till it died, in 
1882, being, therefore, seventy-two years old ; 
Mr. Hines has had it stuffed. Mr. Hines has 
been Presidentof the Board of Village Trustees ; 
was two years Trustee, and is now serving his 
third term as Justice of the Peace ; he is a 
Democrat. While living in Chicago, he bought 
a block of land on La Salle street, containing 
one-half acre, for $150, and sold it the follow- 
ing year for $1,150. 

JAMES J. HUNT, hardware and agri- 
cultural implements, Naperville, is a native of 
Crawford County, Penn.; was born in the year 
1824, and is the fourth child in a family of nine 
children born to James N. Y. and Sarah (Jewell) 
Hunt, natives of Vermont. He, a blacksmith, 
moved, when our subject was six years of age, 
to Erie, Penn. Our subject received a common- 
school education ; at eighteen, went into his 
father's shop, and at nineteen he visited the 
West, spending one summer in Naperville ; 
then returned home. He married Miss Nancy 
Converse, a native of Erie County, Penn., in 
1843 ; she died in 1872, in Colorado, where she 
had gone for her health. After his marriage, 
he lived in Erie one year, then came, in fall of 
1844, with his father, mother and six children 
to Naperville. Subject worked one year here 
in plow shop, and. in 1846, opened a blacksmith 
shop upon the present site of his store, and con- 
tinued about twelve years. Soon after coming 
here, his father and mother moved to De Kalb 
County, where they died. He was elected 
Sheriff in 1856, and has served one term since 
He engaged in the livery business as early as 
1855, and was identified with the business until 
about 1861. He then sold out his business, en- 
listed in the Thirteenth Infantry, and was 
elected Captain of a company. [He had pre- 
viously held the office of Captain of a militia 
company of Naperville, which he had raised.] 



He took his company to Dixon, 111., where he 
turned his office over to Judge Blanchard. He 
had held the office of Major in militia of Penn- 
sylvania, where he raised a company. He re- 
turned home from Dixon and raised another 
company, and notified Gov. Gates, who an- 
swered that he should disband. He bought 
new stock, having sacrificed his property to go 
to the army, and continued the livery business 
about one year. About 1861, he engaged in his 
present business, buying a small stock of goods 
from another man. The business was small, 
and his sous conducted the same, but when the 
war was over he engaged regularly in the busi- 
ness, which at first was principally a tin shop, 
but gradually grew to what it is now. In 1858, 
he built the present building, where he carries 
on business. He was formerly a Whig, but is 
now a Republican. Has had nine children, four 
of whom are living. He was married, Septem- 
ber 3, 1874, to Miss Lucia A. Davis, a native of 
New York ; no children from second marriage. 
The four children living are Frank W., partner 
with his father ; Charles C, in father's store ; 
James E., now in Dakota ; Eva E., at home. 
Mr. Hunt has been Justice of the Peace and 
Police Magistrate over twenty years ; during 
the entire time, never had a verdict changed by 
Circuit Court, nor lost a prisoner during his 
term as Sheriff. He has liberally supported 
the enterprises of this community. 

GEORGE H. HUNT, proprietor Naperville 
Creamery, is a native of Madison County, N. 
Y.; he was born March 6, 1847 ; his father, 
Anson Hunt, was a farmer, and George was 
raised on his father's farm, and received a dis- 
trict school and academic course of study, ob- 
taining a good commercial education. In 1864. 
his father engaged in the creamery business, 
his being the first creamery in Madison County. 
Our subject assisted in his father's business. 
At the age of twenty he married Miss Estella 
Tuttle, of Madison County, N. Y., and after the 
marriage he began as foreman in a creamery, 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



19 



and continued in that employ in Madison and 
Boone Counties until 1873, when he took a trip 
West, stopping one year as an officer in the 
State Reform School of Wisconsin, at Wauke- 
sha. He then engaged as foreman of C. W. 
Golds' Creamery at Elgin, 111., where he re- 
mained for three years, when in 1874 he came 
to Naperville and reuted a building, and con- 
ducted a creamery for three years, then built 
his present factory, 36x60 feet aud two stories 
high, and, being built after his own direc- 
tions, is a model of convenience. Mr. Anson 
Hunt died here in Naperville in 187S. Mrs. 
Hunt, formerly Miss Lydia Wilcox, is living 
here with her son. 

N. B. HOSLER, general store, Naperville, is a 
native of Lancaster Count}-, Penn., born in 1831, 
fifth child of a family of six born to Benjamin 
and Elizabeth (Beamerderfer) Hosier, both na- 
tives of Lancaster Count}-, Penn. Jacob Hosier, 
the father of subject, moved to Schuylkill 
County, Penn., in 1831, where he engaged in 
farming. In 1844. came to this count} - , and 
followed farming till 1870, when he retired from 
active life, and died in 1879 ; his wife died in 
1866. Subject worked on the farm till 1857 
when he married Abigail Butts, a native of 
Lehigh County, Penn., who died in the fall of 
1870, leaving seven children, six of whom are 
living at home. After his marriage he rented 
a farm, which he worked three years. In 1866, 
he engaged as clerk with Mr. M. Brown, of 
Naperville, with whom he remained until the 
spring of 1869 ; then engaged in general mer- 
chandising in Bloomingdale, this county, for 
two years, and in 1872 became partner in the 
1 in- mess in which he is at present engaged, 
lie ran a threshing machine sixteen years, was 
also engaged in buying produce for a number of 
years. 

W. H. HILLEGAS, of Hillegas & Co.. hard- 
ware, agricultural implements, etc., Naperville. 
is a native of Pottsville. Schuylkill County, 
Penn, ; born in 1840. and is the seventh in a 



family of eight children born to Joseph and 
Sarah Willtrout Hillegas ; they were natives of 
Berks and Schuylkill Counties, Penn. He was 
a gunsmith by trade, which he followed up to 
about 1840, since which he has been farming. 
In 1856, the family came to Naperville aud 
bought a farm one mile west of the village, 
aud occupied the same, where our subject lived 
for two years. He then engaged as a clerk 
with Mr. A. Friedly, in the hardware business, 
at Naperville, and continued with him until 
1867, when, in company with Mr. Louis Reiche, 
bought the business, and has conducted the 
same since, firm being W. H. Hillegas & Co. 
In 1865, Mr. Hillegas enlisted for one year, or 
during the war, in the One Hundred and Fifty- 
sixth Begiment Illinois Infantry, Company D ; 
was Orderly Sergeant, and served until dis- 
charged in September following, and returned 
to Naperville and took his position in the store. 
In 1862, he married Miss Mary Hartman, a 
native of Lancaster County, Penn., born 1840, 
and came to Du Page County, 111., with her 
parents when she was two years of age. They 
have three children, viz., Ida .May. ( harles W. 
and Harvey H. Is a Republican, and a mem- 
ber of the Evangelical Church since 1857, tak- 
ing an active interest in the Sabbath school, of 
which he has been Secretary a number of years. 
HERMAN HAMMERSCHMIDT, farming, 
J'. 0. Naperville, is a native of Westphalia. 
Prussia ; he was born in the year 1830. He 
received, in addition to a common school educa- 
tion, two years' attendance at college. When he 
was eighteen years old, he came with his brother 
to the United States, and bought a farm in 
Naperville Township. Du Page Co.. 111., and 
some eight years later Eerman bought his 
present place and has lived here since. In 
1856, he married Miss Emma Van Oven, a 
native of Westphalia, Prussia. She came to 
the United States, with her married sister in 
1852. By the marriage there have been ten 
children. He is a Republican, ami has served 



20 



BIOGRAPHIC A I.: 



as Assessor for four years ; he has also served 
as School Trustee. He is a member of the 
German Lutheran Church, of which he has 
been Trustee a number of years, and has taken 
an active interest. He owns eighty acres locat- 
ed three miles west of Naperville and six from 
Aurora. 

S. B. HILL, farmer, P. 0. Eola, 111., is a na- 
tive of the State of Maine, and was born in 
the city of Calais in the year 1823. He was 
raised on the farm, and received a common- 
school education. When he was eighteen years 
of age, he came West to Chicago, and traveled 
transient, stopping at Galena and in the pine- 
ries of Wisconsin. He then came to Warrens- 
ville in 1842, and rented a farm. He also ran 
a thresher, in company with Mr. Daniel Warne, 
until 1849, when he went to California. He 
went with a company of twenty-five men, they 
driving overland by ox teams. He lived about 
three years in California, during which time he 
followed mining and kept a butcher's shop in 
the mountains. He returned, via Panama, to 
Du Page County, and bought his present place. 
He married Miss Caroline, daughter of John 
Warne, of Michigan. She came to Du Page 
County in 1834 with her parents. By the mar- 
riage there have been six chddren, of whom 
three are living — Annie, now Mrs. Paxton, liv- 
ing in this county; Howard, at home ; Lorin, at 
home. After his marriage, he lived on his 
farm, where he has lived since. He is a Re- 
publican in his politics. He is a member of 
the M. E. Church. He owns 425 acres, located 
in Naperville and Winfield Townships, two and 
one-half miles north of Eola. He first bought 
about one hundred and sixty acres, and has 
added the rest since. 

CHARLES JENKINS, farmer, P. 0. Naper- 
ville, 111., is a native of Allegany County, N. Y. 
He was born in July, 1826 ; was raised on the 
farm, and received a common-school education. 
When he was sixteen years of age, he began 
working by the month for himself, and at the 



age of nineteen he came West and stopped 
about six months in Du Page County, 111. He 
then worked about one year in Kane County, 
when he again came to Du Page County, and 
worked by the month until the spring of 1849. 
He then worked on the shares one year, and in 
1850 went overland by team to California, and 
lived there for two years, during which time he 
worked at mining. Returning by the Nicar- 
agua route, he rented his present place, and 
two years later bought it. Mr. Jenkins first 
voted for Gen. Taylor and has been a Repub- 
lican since the organization of the party. He 
has held the offices of Towhship Trustee, Road 
Commissioner, aud has served as Supervisor 
for a number of years. In May, 1852, he mar- 
ried Miss Harriet H. Thatcher, a native of 
Wayne County, N. Y. She came West with 
her parents in 1839. By the marriage there 
are three children. He owns 219 acres of land, 
located three miles west of Naperville. 

H. W. KNICKERBACKER, Naperville, is a 
native of Rensselaer County, N. Y., born No- 
vember 20, 1813, and was raised on a farm. 
At the age of eighteen, he began reading law, 
and in October, 1833, he moved to Chicago, 
where his brother lived (Abram V., Assistant 
Superintendent with Capt. Allen in building the 
harbor); our subject went in the store of P. F. 
W. Peck, and in May, 1834, he came to Naper- 
ville and purchased a claim adjoining the town; 
he then went East and married, returning to 
his claim in the fall and built a frame house, 
considered at that time the best in Northern 
Illinois; though not very pretentious, he lived 
on his claim until 1843, when, upon the death 
of his wife, he went East, in the spring of 1S44, 
and, in order not to lose his residence, he re- 
turned in the fall and voted for Henry Clay. 
His first wife was Miss Sarah Groesbeck, a na- 
tive of New York ; they had three children, all 
living. He engaged in mercantile business in 
Lansingburg, N. Y., and continued for twenty 
years. In 1847 or 1848, he married Miss 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



21 



Clarissa A. Seelye, a native of New York. In 
1868, they came to their farm here at Naper- 
ville, where she died in 1S75. after which he 
went East, and next year, he went to Adrian, 
.Mich., where he engaged in mercantile busi- 
ness for about one year; he then again returned 
to Naperville, where, in 1877. he married Miss 
N. ('. Cunningham, a native of Jonesboro. 
Tenn., daughter of Rev. J. W. Cunningham, and 
engaged as Preceptress and Professor of En- 
glish Literature in the Northwestern College of 
Naperville. Mr. K. was the first Assessor in 
this county. During the war. he resided in 
Lansingburg, N. Y.; he took an active part, 
devoting his time and rnoney to forwarding 
military affairs. He used his influence with 
Governor to establish a hospital at that joint. 
lie had been the principal officer of t lie agri- 
cultural society, and through his influence they 
gave the location for the hospital on which the 
Government erected buildings costing over 
$100,000, and during the war our subject made 
daily visits with the surgeons, his object being 
to cheer the patients, who became greatly at- 
tached to him. Is a Freemason; was a Whig, 
and is at present a Republican, and a " no 
license " advocate, also a member of the Con- 
gregational Church. 

CHARLES H. KAYLER, Naperville Marble 
Works, Naperville, is a native of Germany, was 
born in 1837. In 18-13, the family emigrated 
to the United States and settled at Cleveland 
< >hio, where Charles H. lived till he was twenty- 
three years of age, his father being engaged 
in agricultural pursuits. At the age of eighteen 
our subject was apprenticed to the marble-cut- 
ting trade, at which he served three years, under 
ins mother John, who conducted the business. 
After completing his apprenticeship, he worked 
at the trade as journeyman till 1861, when he 
enlisted in the Sixth Ohio Cavalry, Company C, 
and served till the close of the war. During 
his term of service, he participated in the bat- 
tles of Winchester and Port Republic, and in 



all the engagements in the Shenandoah Valley, 
where his regiment operated under command of 
Gens. Fremont and Pope. At the close of the 
war. he returned to Cleveland. Ohio, and worked 
at his trade till 1866; he then came to Chicago 
and engaged as baggage- master on the Chicago, 
Burlington & Quincy Railroad, which position 
he held for six years. He then removed to 
Naperville, where he engaged in the marble 
business. He employs from four to six work- 
men, and does an annual business of from .SI 6,- 
000 to $20,000. His establishment, which is 
the only one of the kind in the county, turns 
out well-executed work, which finds ready sale; 
he has furnished many elegant jobs for the city 
of Chicago. Mr. Kayler has been twice mar- 
ried. In 1860, he married Prudence P. Stevens, 
a native of Ohio, who died in 1865, leaving 
three children, viz.. Clarence, Oscar and Byron. 
In is72. he married Emma B. Bolliman, a na- 
tive of Naperville, who has borne him two chil- 
dren — Robert and Lulu. 

FREDERICK KAILER. clothing and gents' 
furnishing. Naperville, a native of this county, 
born in Naperville in 1841 ; is the second child 
of a family of seven. His parents, Jacob and 
Dorotha (Degen) Kailer, natives of Alsace, Ger- 
many, came to the United States about the 
year 1839, and to Naperville in 1840. Jacob 
Kailer, who was a shoemaker by trade, died in 
January, 1852 ; his widow, now Mrs. Louis Wen- 
delberg, resides in Chicago. Frederick received 
a fair education, and worked on the farm till 
1861, when he enlisted in Company E. Fifty- 
fifth Illinois Infantry ; was elected Sergeant ; 
was in the battles of Shiloh, siege of Yicks- 
burg, Arkansas Post. Lookout Mountain, also 
served in the Atlanta campaign and the march 
to the sea. The regiment was veteranized in 
1864, and he returned to Naperville. Soon 
afterward, he went to Chicago and engaged in 
the butcher business for a number of years. In 
1868, he opened a clothing store in Naperville. 
where he has since remained engaged in that 



22 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



business. In 1870, he married Mel'vina Snyder, 
a native of Pennsylvania, and from this mar- 
riage five children have been born. Mr. Kailer 
is a Republican, and a member of the Evan- 
gelical Church. 

WILLIAM KING, farmer, P. 0. Naperville, 
is a native of Germairy, born in the year 1829. 
He received a common-school education, and, 
at the age of eighteen, came to America. In 
1848, he arrived in Bloomingdale Township, 
Du Page County, where he had relatives living, 
and the following year he engaged by the 
month on a farm about five miles south of Na- 
perville, where he remained about three years. 
In 1852, in company with a party of forty -four, 
headed by Dr. Barnes and Thaddeus Swift, he 
started overland with ox teams for California. 
At Fort Laramie, the party divided, Mr. King 
joining a company bound for Oregon. The 
company had considerable trouble with the In- 
dians, who stole their oxen, requiring them to 
abandon some of their wagons, and in the "lava 
beds " (since made historic by the Indians un- 
der Capt. Jack) their vanguard were massacred 
by the Indians. Mr. King remained in Oregon 
and California about five years, during which 
time he followed mining and butchering — re- 
turning by water via Nicaragua route. Janu- 
ary 22, 1*57. he married Miss Hypsa Royce ; 
she was a native of New Hampshire and was 
raised in New York, daughter of Jonathan 
Royce, who came to the vicinity of Naperville 
in 1835, and was largely interested in farming. 
After marriage, they settled on a farm he had 
bought, and farmed until 1870 ; he then moved 
to Naperville, and engaged in the manufacture 
of brick and tile in company with Mr. George 
Martin, they making the first tile in the county. 
After some six years, Mr. King withdrew 
from the business, and has lived retired since, 
his farming interests, amounting to some four 
hundred acres located a few miles from Naper- 
ville, being managed by tenants. Politically, 
Mr. King is independent, though generally in 



harmony with the Republican party. In 1875, 
he was elected Supervisor of the town of Lisle, 
and was re-elected successively for six terms. 

ADAM KELLER, farmer, P. 0. Naperville, 
is a native of Bavaria, Germany, and was born 
in the year 1831. His father was a forrester, 
and Adam assisted in the business, and on lie- 
coming of age he came to America. He had 
received a district school education. He came 
through to Naperville, where he expected to 
meet his brother, but the latter had gone to 
Minnesota. Adam worked on the farm in this 
vicinity by the year until 1860, when he mar- 
ried Miss Barbara Weigand, a native of Bava- 
ria, Germany. She came to the United States 
with her parents when she was a child. Her 
parents, John and Barbara (Ptister) Weigand, 
were natives of Bavaria, Germany. They came 
to the United States in 1848, and settled in 
York Township, Du Page Co., 111., where he 
farmed until his death in 1861. His first wife, 
Barbara Pfister, died in Germany ; the second 
wife, Cuigunde Waltz, also died in Germany, 
and the third wife, Gertrude Fleeman, survives 
him, and is living in the old home. After the 
marriage he rented farms (three) for about nine 
years. He then bought 152 acres where he 
now resides, and has since added eighty-nine 
acres, having in all 241 acres, located on the 
river two miles northwest of Naperville. Mr. 
Keller came to this vicinity $9 in debt, and has 
earned all he has by his labor and management. 
He is Democratic in his politics, though he 
votes generally independent. He has served 
three years as Road Commissioner, and is now 
serving as Supervisor of the township. By the 
marriage there have been nine children — seven 
girls and two boys. 

WILLIAM J. LAIRD, police, Naperville, 
was born in Naperville April 12, 1S35, and is 
the youngest of two children born to William 
and Philinda (Stevens) Laird. William Laird, 
our subject's father, came west to Naperville 
with his brother George in 1832, opened a store 



NAPERYILLE TOWNSHIP. 



23 



and traded witli the Indians till the fall of 1833, 
I hen went to Fox River and took a claim a mile 
above Aurora, but owing to the Indians claim- 
ing the land he abandoned it, and removed to 
Montgomery County, 111., where betook a claim 
and where he afterward died. Our subject's 
mother, daughter of John and Polly (Taylor) 
Stevens, came to Naperville with her parents 
about the year 1832. where they took a claim 
and afterward conducted a hotel. John Stevens 
was born in Rindge, N. H., September 2, 1785, 
removed when quite young with his parents to 
Hartland, Yt.. where he afterward married Miss 
Polly Taylor, a native of that place — born April 
23, 178G. He moved to Enosburg, Vt.. thence 
in 1S32 to Naperville. 111., where he bought a 
claim and afterward ran a hotel there. He 
died May 3, 1862. During his life he had 
worked at his trade — carpentering — farmed and 
engaged in the hotel business. His wife, our 
subject's grandmother, died January 23, 1873. 
Of their eight children, three are now living. Our 
subject's mother, after the death of his father, 
returned to her father's place near Naperville, 
where she lived until January, 1844, when she 
married Mr. Hiram Fowler, a native of Berk- 
shire County, Mass., born in 1798, came to this 
vicinity in 1833, and bought a claim three miles 
from Naperville, which he occupied a number 
of years, then retired from active life, and is 
now living in the town of Naperville. The sub- 
ject of this sketch was raised in Naperville, re- 
ceived an ordinary education in the common 
schools, and at the age of eighteen years he was 
apprenticed to the harness-maker's trade, at 
which he served three years. He soon after 
opened a shop in Naperville, where he followed 
his trade. In May. 1861, he was appointed 
police, which position he held until 1863, when 
he was commissioned as recruiting officer for 
the Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry. He raised 
twenty-eight men, joined his regiment at St. 
Charles, was appointed Second Lieutenant of 
Company H January 22, 1864, and promoted 



to the rank of First Lieutenant August 8, 1865. 
Company H, Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry, was 
organized by Capt. L. C. Matlack January 
22, 1864, at St. Charles, 111. Our subject 
served as guard for prisoners at Alton, 111., 
thence went to Glasgow, Mo., and served in 
guerrilla warfare ; joined Gen. Ewing's army in 
defense of Jefferson City ; engaged in the fights 
at Independence and Osage, Mo. ; was on the 
forty- three days' march, for which the command 
received the thanks of the Missouri Legislature; 
was present at the surrender of the rebel Gen. 
Jeff Thompson at Chalk Bluff, Ark. ; served <m 
the Kansas frontier, and inarched to the relief 
of Gen. Dodge, who was endangered by the In- 
dians, and was discharged at Camp Butler, 
Springfield, 111., December 21, 1865. After the 
war he returned to Naperville, and engaged in 
the harness-making business until 1873 or 1874, 
when his shop was destroyed by fire. He was 
appointed police on his return from the army, 
and also served as Deputy Sheriff eight years. 
In 1858, he married Miss Marie Vosburg, a 
native of Milwaukee, Wis. They have had 
three children, two of whom are living — Arthur 
W. and Edward S. ; Louie L. was killed on a 
train at Riverside. 111. Upon the organization 
of the Naperville Light Guards, Company K, 
Third Regiment Illinois Infantry, in 1877, Mr. 
Laird was appointed Second Lieutenant, and is 
now serving his second term as Captain of the 
company. 

NORMAN LENT, blacksmith, Naperville, 
was born in Bradford County, Penn., June 17, 
1826, son of Egbert and Polly (Stocking) 
Lent. Egbert Lent, born in Peekskill, X. Y.; 
was a carpenter and wagon-maker by trade, and 
died about the year 1847; his wife, born in 
Biughamton, N. Y., is now living with her 
daughter in Iowa, and is eight}' }ears of age; 
of their eleven children, ten are still living. 
Subject received but a limited education ; at 
the age of thirteen moved with his parents to 
Onondaga County. X. Y., and when nineteen 



24 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



years old was apprenticed to the blacksmith 
trade ; served four years, and then worked at 
his trade as journeyman two years. In 1851, 
he came to Illinois, worked at his trade in St. 
Charles for one year, and March 2, 1852, came 
to Naperville, where he worked as journeyman 
three years. He then went into partnership 
with Willard & Loomis, but after one year 
withdrew from the firm, and has since carried 
on business on his own account. He married 
on July 4, 1848, Miss Caroline M. Richmond, a 
native of Vernon, Oneida Co., N. Y. From 
this marriage eleven children have been born, 
of whom seven are living, viz.. Elgin E., Edwin 
W. and George W., all engaged in the black- 
smithing business in Correctionville, Woodbury 
Co., Iowa ; Emma J. (wife of Mr. Thompson, a 
farmer of Cherokee, Iowa), Lillian, Walter and 
Minnie, at home. Mr. Lent is a Republican. 

SAMUEL LONG, farmer, P. 0. Naperville, 
is a native of Lehigh County, Penn., and was 
born in the year 1819. His father was a miller, 
and Samuel was brought up to the business 
until he became sixteen years of age, when he 
began working at farming, and on becoming 
seventeen he apprenticed to tailoring, and 
served for four years ; he then worked as a 
journeyman for a number of years, and about 
1843 came to Illinois, and settled in Naperville, 
and worked on the farm. In 1848, he married 
Miss Martha Nitz, a native of Lehigh County, 
Penn., who came to this county with her par- 
ents about the same time he came. The fol- 
lowing year after his marriage, he began work 
at his trade in Naperville, opened a shop, and, 
a year later, in company with Mr. Weaver, he 
opened a clothing store, he buying Mr. Wea- 
ver's interest a few year9 later, and conducted 
the business until 1863, when he sold out and 
bought the present place where he has lived 
since. By the marriage there have been four- 
teen children, eleven of whom are living. He 
is Republican, and is a member of the Evan- 
gelical association for upward of forty years. 



He owns 158 acres located six miles southwest 
of Naperville. and four and one-half miles 
southeast of Aurora. 

FREDERICK LONG, furniture and under- 
taker. Naperville, is a native of Wurtemberg, 
Germany, born in 1837. In 1853, he came to 
America and stopped with his brother in Chi- 
cago, who had come to the country previousl} - , 
and the same year he hired on a farm near 
Wheeling, remaining one and one-half years. 
In 1856, he came to Naperville and apprenticed 
to the cabinet trade with Mr. Butts and served 
for three years, then worked as journeyman 
for two years longer. He then began on his 
own account, opening a shop on the south side 
of the river and doing business in a small way, 
putting in all his time, and in 1866 he bought 
his present location and built the buildings, 
and has conducted the business since ; has one 
building LOO feet deep, two stories, and in the 
spring of 1882 he added two stories, 22x40 — now 
doing a business of over $12, 000. In the spring 
of 1861 he married Miss Amelia Beidelman, a 
native of Illinois. They have one adopted son 
whom they took when but six weeks of age. Is 
a Republican. 

GHORGE MARTIN, farmer, P. O. Naper- 
ville, was born in Edinburgh, Scotlaud, in the 
year 1826, only child of George and Elizabeth 
(Christie) Martin, who were natives of Scotland. 
George Martin, Sr., was engaged in the grain 
business, running vessels between the Baltic 
and Black Seas to ports in England and Scot- 
land. In 1833, the family came to America, 
and in June of that year, stopped with Mark 
Beaubien in the old pioneer hotel, Soginnash, 
of Chicago. From this point, Messrs. Martin 
& Christie started on a prospecting tour to 
Ottawa, and returned viatheNaper settlement, 
where Mr. Martin bought a claim of Capt. 
Joseph Naper. having thirty acres fenced and 
broken ; the unimproved portion included all 
the land desired, west of the river, there being 
no settlers there then. The family occupied 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



25 



the claim in August, living in a log house until 
spring, when they occupied their new frame 
house, which was the first frame house in what 
now constitutes Du Page Count}'. Mr. George 
Martin. Si\. improved and lived on the farm 
until his death in 1841 ; his wife also remained 
on the old homestead until her death iu 1872. 
Both were life-long members of the Presbyte- 
rian Church, and were active and liberal in 
their support to its cause. He was a man of 
fine education; a Liberal iu his native land, he 
joined the Liberal party in his new home, and 
lived enjo3'ing the respect and confidence of 
all who knew him. George Martin, Jr., came 
with his parents, and has always lived on the 
old homestead. He received the advantages 
of the district and selectschools of his vicinity, 
and. in addition to the management of his farm- 
ing interest, has been identified, first in the 
mercantile business iu Naperville, and. later, in 
company with the Hon. J. G. Wright, estab- 
lished the Producers' Bank of Martin & 
Wright. He has also engaged himself in laying 
out several additions to Naperville. which in- 
clude all that portion of the city lying south 
and west of the river. He is at present en- 
gaged in the manufacture of brick and drain 
tile on his place, which has grown to be an ex- 
tensive business, his works being the largest in 
the State. Mr. Martin also owns a fine stone 
quarry, located on his farm, which, though not 
fully developed, gives ample proof of an inex- 
haustible supply of the finest of building stone. 
In 1854, Mr. Martin married Miss Sibelia Rid- 
dler, a daughter of the Rev. Alexander Rid- 
dler, of Peoria. There are four children — 
Elizabeth, Kittie, George and Carrie. 

J. F. METZ, farmer, P. 0. Naperville, is a 
native of Du Page County, 111., born in the year 
1849, and is the fourth of seven children born 
to Adam and Elizabeth (Knapp) Metz, who 
were natives of Germany ami Warren County, 
Penn. He came to America with his par- 
ents when he was but one year of age; they 



settled in Buffalo, N. Y. When he became 
of age, he came to Illinois and worked on 
the canal, and about 1840 married and began 
farming, renting the first few years; he then 
bought a place of the Government, and in 1849 
went to California, overland, with a company 
from this vicinity. He was gone three years, 
and was engaged iu mining; returning, he oc- 
cupied his place, which he had bought of the 
Government, and farmed there until 1875, when 
he removed to Naperville, where he died in 
March, 1879. Mrs. Metz is living at the old 
home in Naperville. Our subject was raised 
on the farm,- and received a common-school 
education. In 1870, he married Miss Mary 
Grove, a native of Cumberland County, Penn.; 
she came to Du Page County, 111., with her 
parents in 1865. By the marriage, there have 
been six children, of whom five are living — ■ 
Edna. Emery A.. Arthur A., Sherman G. and 
Elsie M. He owns 104f acres located one a 
half miles southwest of Naperville. He is Re- 
publican in politics. 

E. MUSSELMAN. grain dealer. Naperville, 
is a native of Northampton County, Penn., 
born in 1816, and lived in his native county 
until 1847. His father was a weaver. Our sub- 
ject learned the carpenter's trade, and followed 
the same during the summers and teaching 
school during the winters. He was apprenticed 
when seventeen years of age, and served with 
his employer six or seven years. He received 
a district school education, and was fond of 
books, studying the higher branches at home. 
At about the age of twenty-one, he began teach- 
ing, which he did during the winters for some 
ten years. In 1839. he married Miss Catharine 
Billiard, a native of Pennsylvania, who died 
January 31, 1882; they had eight children, six 
living. In 1847, the came to Du Page County. 
and settled at Naperville, and engaged at his 
trade for a number of years in this and Will 
Counties, and then about 1855 became a minis- 
ter of the Evangelical Association, traveling in 



80 



BKMiliAPIlICAL: 



the interest of the Association for fifteen years. 
He then located at Naperville, and worked at 
his trade of carpenter for several years. Dur- 
ing the past five years has been engaged in 
his present business, buying and shipping 
grain and dealing in coal. He is now Justice 
of the Peace, an office he formerly held in Will 
County. 

JOSEPH MEANS, deceased, was a native 
of Pennsylvania, born near Pittsburgh in the 
year 1795, and was raised a farmer, and in the 
year 1834 came West to Illinois, and made a 
claim to the present place, which he began im- 
proving and cultivating. In 1840, he married 
Miss Mary Vaughan, a native of Vermont; she 
died in 1853. In 1855, he married Miss 
Abia Vaughan, a sister of the first wife, 
and a native of Vermont, by which marriage 
there were born four children, two of whom are 
living — Archibald and Nancy. Mr. Means 
died on the old homestead in 1872. Mrs. 
Means has lived on the homestead since. 

LEVI MANBECK, gardener, Naperville, is a 
native of Berks County, Penn., was born in 1820, 
and was raised to farming, receiving a common 
school education. In 1847, he came to Du Page 
County and farmed, and teamed in the meantime 
to Chicago, always making his home in Naper- 
ville. In January, 1847, he married Miss Han- 
nah Hoy, a native of Schuylkill County, Penn., 
from which union have been born two children: 
Mrs. Ida Hafle, residing near Preeport, 111., and 
Celia, at home. He is a member of the Evan- 
gelical Church and a Republican. 

PHILIP ORCUTT, contractor, builder and 
undertaker, Naperville, was born in Mont- 
gomery County, N. Y., in that portion since 
annexed to Hamilton County, that State, De- 
cember 12, 1819 ; was raised on the farm, and 
received a limited education in the common 
schools. His father was a carpenter, and from 
him subject learned the trade at home ; he 
also acquired the shoemaking trade, working 
at the latter during the winter and at carpen- 



tering in the summer seasons for fifteen years. 
In 1844, he came to Illinois, where he stayed 
with his brother Daniel, and farmed and worked 
at carpentering. In 1846, he married Laura 
Gates, a native of New York, who came to 
Illinois with her parents at an early date ; she 
died November 15, 1859, leaving four children, 
viz., John P., merchant and Deputy Postmaster 
at Oilman, 111. ; Thomas (in Iowa) ; Frank, 
Assistant Cashier in post office, Chicago ; Fred, 
at home. After his marriage, Mr. Orcutt 
bought a piece of land one and a quarter miles 
west of Naperville, on which he lived till about 
the year 1855, when he moved to Naperville 
and there engaged in the lumber business, also 
contracting and building. About the year 
1859 he discontinued the lumber business. In 
the fall of 1861. he enlisted in Company H, 
Ninth Illinois Cavalry, and remained in service 
three years, his regiment operating in the West 
with Grant's army. He returned to Naperville 
in 1864; afterward worked in North Carolina, 
where he assisted in the construction of seven 
bridgea over the Neuse River ; returned to 
Naperville in 1865, where he has since followed 
contracting and building. His second wife, 
Anna Ingalls, whom he married December 11, 
1868, is a native of New York, and came to 
Illinois, with her parents, when a child ; she has 
borne him two children, of whom one is living, 
viz., Daniel. Mr. Orcutt is a Republican. 

H. L. PEASLEE, retired, Naperville, is a 
native of Burlington, Vt, born 1810, second 
child born to Robert and Amanda Loomis 
Peaslee, natives of New Hampshire and Ver- 
mont. Our subject engaged as clerk in the 
mercantile business in his native town at about 
the age of sixteen, and clerked until he was 
nineteen or twenty, when he took a position as 
teller in the bank of Burlington, where he re- 
mained about two years. He then, in company 
with his brother-in-law, Amos W. Butler, en- 
gaged in the mercantile business, conducting a 
general store, until about 1834-35. In May, 1836, 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



27 



he and wife came West to Chicago, where he 
had relatives. Harmon & Loomis having es- 
tablished a store in Naperville about 1835, our 
subject took charge of it, which he conducted 
until 1841, when, owing to sickness in his 
family, he returned to Vermont, where he re- 
mained two years ; then came to Chicago and 
assisted Mr. Harmon in wholesale grocery for 
several years. In 1845, he came to Naperville, 
where he and Mr. Loomis engaged in general 
merchandising, continuing about ten years, 
when the business was sold to Mr. Yount. He 
then, in company with others, established a 
deposit bank, known as the Producers' Bank, 
with which he was connected about three years. 
He then engaged in merchandising, with the 
object of establishing his son, Luther L., in 
business ; and soon after, his sou enlisted in 
the One Hundred and Fifth Illinois Infantry, 
he holding the office of Second Lieutenant, and 
served through, with his command, to Atlanta, 
where he resigned and came home, owing to 
the failure of his father's health. Our subject 
continued the business a few years after his 
son went into the army, and then sold out, and 
has lived retired ever since, excepting a few 
years which he devoted to the management of 
Mr. Loomis' business, during the latter's trip 
to Europe. Upon the organization of the coun- 
ty, he was made Coroner and Justice of the 
Peace. In July, 1831, he married Miss Amelia 
M. Butler, at the latter's home in Essex, Vt. 
They have had five children — three living — 
Luther L., of Chicago ; Horace H., merchant 
at Naperville, and Harriet L., now Mrs. W. H. 
Moore, of Peru. 111. Mrs. Peaslee was a daugh- 
ter of Roswell Butler and Ruth Wardner. He 
was a merchant and lumberman, and previous 
to our subject's moving West, Mrs. Peaslee 
came West and lived with her daughter twenty- 
two years, and died here in Naperville about 
the year 1868. 

EJ. II. PEASLEE, proprietor of Du Page 
County Cash Store, Naperville. is a native of 



this county, born in Naperville in August, 1846, 
sou of H. L. Peaslee. Subject was raised in 
his native village, where he received a fair edu- 
cation. His father was a merchant, and H. H. 
was early trained in mercantile business, be- 
ginning when quite young, and assisting his 
father until the latter closed out his business. 
In 1865, he went to Chicago, engaged as clerk 
with King, Harmon & Co., wholesale dry goods, 
etc., and in 1868 went to Chelsea, Iowa, opened 
a hardware store on his own account, and re- 
mained in business there till 1869, when he sold 
out to his partner, and returned to Naperville. 
Thence he went to Memphis, Tenn., where he 
engaged as collector for an ice company ; the 
same year he entered the retail store of Field, 
Leiter & Co., Chicago, as clerk, and at the end 
of the first year was given charge of a depart- 
ment, and soon after became a general sales- 
man, having charge of the woolen department, 
in which he was assisted by seven salesmen. 
In 1874, owing to ill health, occasioned by 
overwork, he resigned his position with Field, 
Leiter & Co., visited Colorado for a few months, 
and in 1875 came to Naperville, where he has 
since been engaged in his present business. In 
1873, he married Nellie Threadgold, daughter 
of Capt. Theadgold, a seafaring man ; she was 
born in the East Indies ; sailed with her father 
till she was fifteen years of age, then settled in 
Jeresy City, where she was educated ; she and 
her married sisters moved to Chicago, where 
she resided at the time of her marriage. From 
this union two children have been born, of 
whom one is living, viz., Henry L. 

WILLIAM PIERCE, farmer, P. 0. Aurora, 
III, is a native of England, born in the county 
of Kent in the 3-ear 1817, eldest of eight chil- 
dren born to William and Ruth (Stephenson) 
Pierce, who were natives of Kent and Notting- 
hamshire, England. He was raised on the farm, 
and when about sixteen years of age he entered 
the army and remained a soldier until about 
the year 1817, having served for nine years. 



28 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



and fought with Wellington at the battle of 
Waterloo, was at the siege of Antwerp and the 
other battles of those days. In 1832, the fam- 
ily came to America, and located in Wayne 
County. N. Y., where he farmed, and in 1835 
moved to Ohio, locating in Summit County, 
where he farmed until his death in the year 
1875. She died in Ohio about the year 1850. 
Our subject was raised on the farm, and at the 
age of sixteen, was apprenticed to the black- 
smith trade. In 1839. came to Illinois, and 
worked at farming in Du Page County until 
the fall; he then began threshing in Kendall 
County, and in the spring of 18-10, he worked 
at his trade on the Illinois and Michigan Canal 
until the fall of that year, when he came to Du 
Page County again and worked at farming, 
until the fall of 1842, when he went to Iowa, 
and worked at his trade in various places, and 
in the summer of 1843, he came here to his 
present place, which he bought ai the land sale 
in the winter of 1842-43, and farmed here 
until the fall of 1844, when he went to Michigan 
and carried on the lumber business, and in the 
fall of 1S45 he returned to his farm. In 1848, 
he married Miss Susan Davis, a native of Ver- 
mont; she came to Du Page County with her 
parents when young; she died in 1849. He 
then followed his trade in Aurora until 1852, 
when he married Miss Margaret Regan, a 
native of Canada. She came to Aurora with 
her parents. In 1853, they came back to the 
farm and have lived here since. They had six 
children, two sons and four daughters. Mr. 
Pierce first voted for Martin Van Buren for 
President, and has been a Republican since 
organization of the party. He has 230 acres 
of land located on the line of Kane and Du 
Page Counties, four miles southeast of Aurora. 
J. H. PAXTON, retired farmer, P. 0. Eola, 
111., is a native of Maury County, Tenn., born 
in the year 1822, and is the sixth of twelve 
children born to Thompson and Cynthia (Potts) 
Paxton. They were natives of North Carolina, 



he born January 23, 1783, and she January 16, 
1790. They married March 6, 1816. He was 
a soldier in the war of 1812, and fought under 
Gen. Jackson against the Creek Indians. His 
brother, James Paxton, was in the battle of 
New Orleans. They moved to Maury County, 
Teun., soon after their marriage. He had a 
small farm and worked at his trade of cabinet- 
making, he carrying on a shop. They moved to 
Fountain County, Ind., about the year 1830, and 
he carried on farming on a large scale there 
until 1833. In 1832, he came to Illinois, and 
made claim to a large track of land, probably 
over six hundred acres, and the next year 
brought his family and settled on the place in 
a log cabin. He was a colonizationist in his 
views on the negro question and a strong anti- 
slavery man, and voted the only vote in Cook 
County for James G. Birney, the anti-slavery 
candidate. Mr. Paxton kept a station of the 
Underground Railroad, and frequently assisted 
in effecting the escape of the slaves. His house 
was a place of public worship and Sabbath 
school. He was a Presbyterian until the latter 
years of his life he joined the Christian Church. 
He died September 12. 1859, and his wife died 
March 19, 1853. Our subject lived with his 
parents until he was about twenty j-ears of 
age. In addition to the district schools, he 
attended Granville Academy, 111., he intending 
to prepare for college, but owing to his health 
he turned to farming after two years' attend- 
ance. He began working with his brother, in 
partnership, on the claim, and on coming to 
Illinois he farmed on his father's claim, and 
later went with his father and others and deeded 
the land. March 31, 1846, he married Miss 
Miranda Pitcher, a native of New York. She 
died in April, 1847. July 4. 1850, he married 
Miss Olive E. Fowler, a native of York Town- 
ship, Du Page County. January 27, 1869, he 
married Miss Sarah Ann Crosier, a native of 
New York. By the first marriage there was 
one child, since deceased. By the second mar- 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



riage there were seven children, six living. 
There are no children by the present marriage. 
After deeding his land, he followed farming 
until lie was taken sick, and left the farm and 
lived for ten years in Aurora, and then caine 
back to the old farm and has lived on the 
place since. During the past three years, he 
has been confined to the house, owing to an 
illness. 

JAMES P. PAXTON, farmer, P. 0. Eola, 
111., is a native of Fountain County, Ind. ; he 
was born in the year 1831. His parents came 
to Du Page County, 111., in 1835, and settled 
on the present place. Our subject was raised 
on the farm. He received a common school 
education, and at the age of nineteen took 
charge of his father's place and has managed 
the farm ever since. His father deeded him 
ISO acres, and after his death he paid the other 
heirs a sum of money. He bought some 200 
acres since, and has deeded a portion to his son. 
He now owns 280 acres located six miles north- 
east of Aurora. Mr. Paxton has been thrice 
married. His present wife was Miss Nettie M. 
Olmstead. a native of Canada. She moved 
with her parents to Kendall County, 111., in 
1856. They were married in Aurora, March 
26. 1868. By the first wife there is one child 
living — Frederick E. By the present marriage 
there are four children — Nellie L., Edward S., 
J. Everette and Roy N. Mr. Paxton is a Re- 
publican in politics. He has served as Asses- 
sor and School Director, and belongs to tire 
Congregational Church. His first wife was 
Emeline McPherreu, a native of Whitehall, 
N. Y.. who came to Du Page County with 
her parents, who lived in Bloomingdale Town- 
ship. She was married July 5, 1856, and died 
October 31, 1859, aged twenty-six years. 

PROF. C. F. RASSWEILER, A. M.. teacher of 
mathematics, Northwestern College. Naperville, 
was born in Allentown, Perm., in 1846. young- 
est child of a family of five born to Henry and 
Catharine B. (Hoffman) Rassweiler, natives of 



Prussia. Henry Rassweiler, the father of sub- 
ject, was married in Prussia, came to the 
United States in 1831 and settled in Pennsyl- 
vania, where he followed his trade — that of a 
weaver. In 1850, he came to Illinois and 
settled in Stephenson Count}-, where he en- 
gaged in weaving, while the male members of 
his family followed farming. He is now seven- 
ty-seven and his wife seventy-nine years of 
age ; they live retired in the village of Dakota, 
Stephenson Co.. 111. The subject of this sketch 
early assisted his father in weaving, and, hav- 
ing received a fair education, began teaching 
school at the age of sixteen. When seventeen 
years of age, he entered the Northwestern College 
at Plainfield, 111., but was unable to attend 
regularly, on account of ill-health, for the next 
three years or more, but afterward attended 
regularly and graduated in 1870, having taught 
in the college part of the time during his at- 
tendance in order to meet the expenses of his 
tuition. After graduating, he made a regular- 
engagement with the college, acting as tutor 
for several 3'ears, then Assistant Professor of 
Mathematics until 1879, when he left the col- 
lege for a two years' furlough, which time he 
spent in California managing a branch office of 
the Western Publishing House, Chicago, with 
which establishment he has been connected 
since 1875. On his return from California, in 
1881, he became Professor of Mathematics in 
the college, which position he now holds. In 
1871, he married Lizzie E. Harlacher. a native 
of Wisconsin, daughter of Rev. Joseph Har- 
lacher, now of Cedar Falls, Iowa. From this 
union three children have been born, viz., George 
F.. Katie 31. and Inez Josephine. 

PROF. H. H. RASSWEILER, A. M.. nat- 
ural science. Naperville. The eldest of a 
family of seven childreu. Is a native of Or- 
wigsburg. Schuylkill Co., Perm., born April 3. 
1842. Tn 1857. the family removed to Illinois 
and settled in Stephenson County, where they 
engaged in farming. Subject, at' the age of 



30 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



seventeen, began teaching in the district 
schools of Stephenson County, and also assist- 
ed his father on the farm. When he became 
twenty years of age, he entered the North- 
western College at Plainfield, 111., and, by 
teaching during the college vacations and act- 
ing as tutor in the college, he earned sufficient 
money to give him a thorough collegiate edu- 
cation. He graduated in 1868, and was ap- 
pointed Professor of Mathematics and Natural 
Science, which position he maintained till the 
spring of 1881, when, owing to the increase in 
his classes in natural science, he resigned his 
position as Professor of Mathematics, and has 
since given his attention solely to the natural 
science department. In 1868, he married a 
former classmate of his, S. Victoria Harlacher, 
a native of Milwaukee, Wis., who has borne 
him two children, viz., Lorena Belle aud Harry 
Clinton. Prof. Rassweiler has been Superin- 
tendent of the Sunday School in connection 
with the college since its organization in 1870; 
he is a member of the Illinois Conference 
Evangelical Association; was licensed in 1S76 
and ordained in 1880. The Professor's par- 
ents, Philip and Dora (Haeseler) Rassweiler, 
were natives of German}'. Philip came to 
the United States when a young man and set- 
tled in Lehigh County, Penn., where he learned 
the weaving trade, and afterward worked with 
his wife's father in Orwigsburg, Schuylkill 
Co., Penn. Was married in 1841; in 1844, 
moved to Millersburg, Penn., and, in 1857, to 
Illinois, where he has since followed farming. 
His wife came to America with her parents, 
who were weavers, and settled in Schuylkill 
County, Penn. 

A. McS. S. RIDDLER, cashier for W. Scott 
& Co., bankers, Naperville, is a native of the 
city of New York ; born in 1837 ; second child 
of a family of nine children born to John J. 
and Elizabeth (Sanderson) Riddler, natives of 
Scotland, where they were married, and where 
also their eldest child was born. John J. 



Riddler and family came to the United States 
in 1S37 ; lived one year in New York City, 
thence moved to Chicago ; thence, in 1838, to 
Flag Creek, Cook Co., 111., where he carried on 
farming; in 1840, moved to Du Page County ; 
thence, in 1844, to the village of Naperville. 
In 1843, he became Deputy Recorder, and, in 
1847, was elected Recorder, serving in that 
office from 1850 to 1854. Was engaged in 
mercantile business in Naperville ; was Post- 
master there fiom 1856 to 1860, and thereafter 
held the office of Justice of the Peace until 
his death, in 1866. His widow lives on the 
old homestead in Naperville. The subject of 
this sketch received a fair education, and, 
when thirteen years old, entered his father's 
store in Naperville. In 1855, secured a posi- 
tion as clerk in a store in Omaha, Neb., which 
he resigned in 1859 on account of ill health, 
and returned to Naperville, where he secured 
the office of Treasurer, and was elected Clerk 
in 1861. In September, 1861, he enlisted in 
Company E, Eighth Illinois Cavalry; served 
three years and ten months, and was mustered 
out in July, 1865, as First Lieutenant, having 
attained to that rank by successive promotions 
from Fifth Corporal. During his time of serv- 
ice, he participated in the battles of Beverly 
Ford and Hazel Run, W. Va., South Mountain, 
Antietam, Gettysburg and other engagements 
in which his regiment took part. Returned to 
Naperville at the close of the war. He was 
elected Village Clerk in 1866, which office he 
held till 1873. In 1867, he engaged as clerk 
in Dr. Daniels' drug store, where he remained 
until 1872, when he took his present position, 
cashier for the banking firm W. Scott & Co. 
He has filled the offices of Village Trustee for 
three years and President of the Board one 
year. In 1874, he married Mary D. Collins, a 
native of Naperville, daughter of John Collins, 
one of the early residents of this vicinity. 

LOUIS REICHE, hardware and agricultural 
implements, tin manufacturer, Naperville, is 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



31 



a native of Hoenstein, Saxony, born in 1839, 
and is the fifth in a family of eight children 
born to Fritz G. and Caroline (Eidam) Reiche, 
natives of Saxony. In 1850, the family came 
to the United States and bought a farm in Cook 
County, which they occupied, but afterward 
sold to a railroad company and bought another 
place near the Indiana line, and farmed until 
about 1867, since which time he has lived re- 
tired, being now eighty-one years of age. Mrs. 
Reiche died in Chicago about 1860. Our sub- 
ject lived with his parents until he was eighteen 
years of age. At sixteen, he was apprenticed 
to the tinner's trade, in Chicago, serving about 
two years; then came to Naperville in 1857, 
and finished his trade, working as journeyman 
several years in Chicago and other places. In 
1S63. he came back to Naperville and worked 
I'jr Mr. Fridley, and in 1867 he and Mr. W. 
H. Hillegas formed a partnership and bought 
the business which they have continued since. 
In 1864, he married Miss Elizabeth Hickel, a 
native of France, who came to Du Page County, 
111., with her parents, when quite young. They 
have two children — Otto and Edwin ; also, liv- 
ing with them, is Elizabeth, daughter of George 
Hickel (deceased). Is a member of the Lu- 
theran Church, and independent in politics. 

SAMUEL H. RICKERT, farmer, P. 0. Na- 
perville, is a native of Schuylkill County, Penn., 
born in the year 1841, and is the younger of 
two children born to John and Rebecca (CIow- 
ser) Rickert, natives of Pennsylvania, who, in 
1845, moved west by teams to Cleveland ; thence 
by lake to Chicago ; thence to Naperville, and 
bought a farm southwest of the town, where 
they farmed until his death in 1847 ; she re- 
mained on the place a few years, and married 
Mr. John Messner, and they moved to Brook- 
ville, Ogle Co., 111., where he died ; she is liv- 
ing in Brookville at the present time. Our 
subject lived at home until lie was twenty-one. 
On becoming of age, he married Miss Elizabeth 
Hummel, a native of Pennsylvania, who came 



to Ogle County with her parents. After mar- 
riage they rented a farm, and the next year oc- 
cupied a place of his own in Ogle County, and 
farmed six years ; he then bought a place in 
Du Page County, and lived on the place for 
three years. He then moved to Naperville, 
where he lived four years ; then bought a farm, 
and farmed it some three years. He then went 
to Nebraska, where he lived about one year, 
and returned to Du Page County, and rented 
his present place, and two years later bought 
the same. In 1865, he enlisted in the Fifteenth 
Illinois Infantry, Company K, and served about 
seven months. He is a Republican in politics. 
By the marriage there have been three children 
— Amelia C, John C. and Gertrude H. Mr. 
Rickert owns a number of fine stock, and a fine 
seven-year-old Clydesdale stallion. He owns 
115 acres, located one mile north of Naperville. 

DANIEL N. RESSLER, farmer, P. O. 
Naperville, is a native of Dn Page County, 
111., born on his present place in the year 
1847, and is the fourth of eight children born 
to Joseph and Susan (Swilley) Ressler, who 
were natives of Lancaster County, Penn. 
They married there, and came to Du Page 
County, 111., in 1842, where they lived until 
their death — he, in July, 1881, and she, in 
May, 1879. He was a miller in his native 
State, but followed farming in the West. 
Our subject was raised on his present place, 
and, in addition to the common schools, at- 
tended the Northwestern College, at Plain- 
field, 111., a number of terms. In his twenty- 
second year, he married Miss Hannah Rick- 
ert, a native of Kane County, 111. After the 
marriage, he rented his father's farm a few 
years, and then moved to Iowa, where he 
farmed in Black Hawk County for four years. 
He then returned to Du Page County, 111., 
and rented his father's farm again, and, after 
his father's death, he bought his present 
place, being the old homestead. He owns 



32 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



eighty acres, located two miles southwest of 
Naperville. By this marriage there have 
been five children, four of whom are living — 
Oscar, Wilson and William, and Robert. 

WILLARD SCOTT, Sr., banker, Naperville, 
was born at Unadilla, Otsego Co., N. Y., April 
20, 1808. His lather, Stephen J. Scott, was, in 
early life, a sea-faring man, having been the 
owner and master of a schooner bearing his 
name, and engaged in the coast trade along the 
eastern shore of our country. The mother, 
whose maiden name was Hadassah Trask, was 
a relative of Gen. Israel Putnam, of Revolution- 
ary fame. They were married in Connecticut, 
and moved from Hartford to Unadilla, Otsego 
Co., N. Y. In 1816. the family moved to Mary- 
land, where they lived about ten years. During 
this time, Willard Scott, Sr., received his edu- 
cation, which was confined to the district school 
course of study, except a short special course 
in mathematics. His desire was to be a sailor, 
as his father before him. but abandoned the 
idea, yielding to his mother's entreaties, to 
whom a sailor's life seemed full of peril. In 
1825, his father determined on seeking a new 
home In the West. The family visited New 
York, and then started for St. Joe, Mich. At 
Buffalo, N. Y., the father shipped the household 
goods, going with them by sail vessel to De- 
troit, and Willard, with the family, started over- 
land through Canada. At Detroit, the family 
went by schooner for St. Joe, save Willard, 
who, in company with a man from Ohio, crossed 
the country in order to meet the goods which 
had been sent in advance. The journey was a 
perilous one, there being no habitation save 
the Indians, and no route marked except by 
blazed trees and Indian trails, through the 
dense Michigan forests. They arrived ten days 
ahead of the boats, during which time they 
lived on corn and potatoes obtained from a 
Frenchman who lived on an island in the river. 
Not liking the east side of the lake, the family 
crossed and built a habitation with posts, poles 



and blankets, at Gross Point, now Evanston, 
theirs being the first house at the place. In 

1829, July 16, at Holderman's Grove, our sub- 
ject was married to Caroline Hawley. Her 
father, Pierce Hawley. moved from Vermont to 
Vincennes, Ind., in 1818, and later moved to 
Illinois, living at various places, settling al 
Holderman's Grove in 1825. In the fall ot 

1830, Willard, with his father, father-in-law, 
and their families, settled at the juuetion of the 
two branches of the Du Page River, three miles 
south of Naperville. At that time, Cook Coun- 
ty included the present counties of Lake, Mc- 
Henry, Du Page and Will. Chicago was the 
voting place, and of the thirty-two votes polled 
that year, the father of our subject heads the 
list. In 1832, the Black Hawk War broke out, 
and Willard's knowledge of the habits and 
wiles of the Indians made him a useful man to 
the settlers during those perilous months. In 
the spring of 1838, he removed to the village 
of Naperville, where his father had preceded 
him the previous year. He built the Naper- 
ville Hotel, which he conducted for eight years. 
He then commenced merchandising, and for 
nearly twenty 3 r ears, most of the time with his 
eldest son, Thaddeus (since deceased, leaving 
one son, Willard H), continued the business 
by which the firm name of Willard Scott & Co. 
has been made historical. After the late war 
of the rebellion, he retired from active business 
life as a merchant, in which, however, he has 
been succeeded by his son, Willard Scott, Jr., 
who continues the business under the same 
firm name. During the time of his residence 
in Naperville, he has been President, first, of 
the Du Page County Bank and afterward of 
the Bank of Naperville, and since he retired 
from mercantile life has been doing business as 
a private banker ; and the banking house of 
Willard Scott & Co., is considered one of the 
absolutely safe institutions of its class in North- 
ern Illinois. An attendant of the Congrega- 
tional Church, iiis religious views may be 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



30 



classed as orthodox, except for a strong lean- 
ing toward the belief of the final salvation of 
all, through the Savior. In politics, he is a 
Democrat ; voted for Jackson, loved Douglas, 
and with him believed in " obeying the laws 
and supporting the Constitution." Mr. and 
Mrs. Scott have both been residents of Illinois 
for more than half a century, and all that time 
have lived near Chicago. They have seen and 
helped to produce the remarkable progress of 
this section, and now move around amid their 
children, grandchildren and neighbors, enjoy- 
ing the confidence, esteem and respect of every- 
body. 

EEV. A. A. SMITH, A. M., President 
Northwestern College, Naperville, is a native 
of Berkshire County, Mass. , born November 
23, 1806. His early life was spent on a farm, 
and there began his thirst for knowledge. 
His means and the times were not favorable 
for obtaining an education, but he was fond 
of books, and spent many hours by the fire- 
side in study. However, he obtained a few 
short terms of instruction at the district 
schools, and. at the age of seventeen, began 
teaching during winter, later attending two 
terms at an academy in Lenox, Mass. At 
the age of twenty one, he moved to Ashtabu- 
la County, Ohio, where he was alternately 
engaged in teaching and studying; was also 
for a short p9riod in the mercantile business. 
He taught first in the public school,' and then 
in an academy; then attended Oberlin Col- 
lege for a year or more, and, in 1S3S, began 
teaching in the Grand River Institute, finally 
becoming its President, and continuing with 
the institution until 1857, when he resigned 
and became Principal of the Greensburg 
Seminary, which position he held for five 
years. While there, he received the honor- 
ary degree of A. M. from the Farmers Col- 
lege of Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1S02, he was 
called to Plainfield, 111. , as the President of 



the Northwestern College, and has continued 
in his position since. May '23, 1833, he mar- 
ried Miss Eliza Cowles. a native of Litchfield 
County, Conn., born in 1808. They have 
one child. While in Ashtabula County, 
Ohio, Mr. Smith was licensed to preach by 
the Congregational Conference, and was or- 
dained a minister while at Greensburg. 

HENRY COWLES SMITH, A. M., Pro- 
fessor, Northwestern College. Naperville, 
was born in Ashtabula County, Ohio, in the 
year 1839, only child of the Rev. A. A. Smith. 
A. M. , and Eliza Cowles, with whom he has 
always made his home. He received a dis- 
trict and academic course of study, and, at 
the age of eighteen, began teaching in the 
Greensburg Seminary. In 1860, he entered 
Oberlin College, graduating in 1863. Mr. 
Smith is a natural musician, and, early in 
life, matured to a more than ordinary musi- 
cian, as early as the age of fifteen beginning 
to give instructions in vocal and instrumen- 
tal music. After graduating from Oberlin 
College, he came to Plainfield, 111., and en- 
gaged as teacher of music in the college, and 
in 1869 he became Professor of Languages, 
Latin and Greek. Since 1870, he has been 
Professor of Latin and Music. In July, 
1863, he married Miss Mary H. Dreisbach, of 
Circleville, Ohio; they have had five children: 
Annie May (died). Fannie Eyre. Mat-tie Eliza. 
Lucy Jewett, Henry Augustine and Charles 
Arthur. 

G. W. SINDLINGER, Professor of Greek 
in Northwestern College, Naperville. was 
born in Tioga County. Penn.. March 5, 1843; 
was raised on the farm, where he remained 
with his parents, who were in moderate cir- 
cumstances, until he was twenty year's of age. 
He attended the common schools, and after- 
ward a select school, and, being desirous of 
obtaining, a thorough education, devoted him- 
self zealously to his studies. At nineteen 



34 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



years of age, lie began the business of life, 
teaching public school in winter and working 
at the carpenter's trade during the summer. 
He came to Illinois, locating in Freeport, 
where he followed teaching and carpentering 
till the summer of 1864, when he enlisted in 
Company G, Ninety-second Illinois Mounted 
Infantry, and remained in service ten months. 
Soon after enlisting, and while on their way 
to join their regiment, which was with Sher- 
man, the new recruits were detached to serve 
under Maj. Cox, with Gen. Thomas, and took 
part in the three days' engagement at Nash- 
ville, afterward engaging in a six weeks' 
campaign in pursuit of Hood through Ten- 
nessee and Alabama. He returned to Nash- 
ville, thence by steamer to Louisville, thence 
by train to Crestline, Ohio, thence via Harris- 
burg and Baltimore to Annapolis, Md., thence 
by steamer to Fortress Monroe, thence to 
Beaufort and Newbern, N. C, thence on a 
campaign to Goldsboro, N. C, engaging in 
the battle of Kingston, and at Goldsboro 
joined his regiment, continuing in the com- 
mand until the surrender of Johnston. The 
day previous to the entrance of the army into 
Raleigh, the Ninety-second Regiment was on 
the advanced guard, and were repulsed by 
the rear guard of Johnston's army, subject 
having a narrow escape from being captured. 
He returned to Freeport, 111., after the war, 
with $1,000. which he determined to devote 
to the procuring of an education. In the fall 
of 1865, he entered the Northwestern Col- 
lege, and graduated in the classical course in 
1869, making three terms during vacations. 
He then took charge of the public schools of 
Naperville, and, after remaining there two 
years, resigned his position on account of ill 
health, and went to Weston, Mo., where he 
taught two years as Assistant Principal in 
the public schools of that place. Thence he 
went to Holden, Mo. ; was Principal of pub- 



lic schools there for two years; then traveled 
a year for his health. In 1876, he came to 
Naperville, engaged as Assistant Professor in 
the Northwestern College; and, in 1880, was 
appointed to his present position, Professor of 
tho Greek Language in that institution. In 
1870, he married Miss A. M. M. Pfeiffer, a na- 
tive of Pittsburgh, Penn. ; they have one 
child, Edna G. 

PHILLIP STRUBLER, Postmaster, deal- 
er in seeds, plants, etc., Naperville, is a na- 
tive of Warren County, Penn., born in 1832, 
second in a family of four children born to 
George and Saloma (Stocker) Strubler. 
They were natives of Alsace, France, and 
were married there, and came to the United 
States in 1832, locating in Warren, Penn., 
where he followed raftiug on the Alleghany. 
In 1837, he came to Naperville and worked 
at his trade of shoemaking, walking to Chi- 
cago for leather; continued his trade here a 
number of years, when he engaged in farm- 
ing, living in town, and. after a few years, 
rented his land; continued to reside here 
until death, September 28, 1868; she died 
August 16, 1871. Our subject lived in Na- 
perville until 1854, when he went to Califor- 
nia via New York and Panama, and remained 
about five years engaged in mining the first 
eighteen months, after which he was on a 
ranch and followed teaming. In 1859, he 
returned to Naperville, and engaged, in com- 
pany with his brothor George, in livery and 
staging, which they followed about ten years, 
and, about 1859 or I860, they took the agency 
of thf American Express Company. In 1866, 
our subject was elected Sheriff of the coun- 
ty, and served one term. At the end of the 
ten years, our subject sold the livery busi- 
ness to his brother, and, in connection with 
his agency of express, he engaged in the 
fruit and seed business. On April 26, his 
name was sent to the United States Senate, 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



and he received the apixiintinent of Post- 
master of Naperville. In 1800, he mar- 
ried Miss Maria Mottinger, a native of 
Ohio, and came with her parents to this 
vicinity when she was young. They have 
four children — Linnie M., Clinton P., Oliver 
W. and Arlette. Is a Republican; has served 
several terms in Town Council; also as As- 
sessor of Corporation. 

CHARLES SCHULZ, tobacconist and bar- 
ber. Naperville, was born in Prussia in 1S29, 
son of Carl and Henrietta (Geistler) Schulz, 
natives of Prussia. Carl Schulz was a com- 
missioned Government Pilot on the Baltic 
Sea for upward of' forty years, and is now a 
pensioner, living retired. Charles received 
an ordinary education in the schools of his 
native land, and, at the age of foiu'teen, was 
apprenticed to the barber's trade in Stettin, 
Prussia. After learning his trade, he worked 
as journeyman in a number of the leading 
cities of Germany. From Berlin he went to 
London. England, where he stayed two years; 
thence to Liverpool, remaining there a year; 
and thence, in 1852, to America, and settled 
in New York City. He worked as a journey- 
man barber in New York for three and a half 
years, then opened a shop of his own, which 
he carried on for a year and a half, then sold 
out and came to Chicago, intending' to locate 
permanently there, but, not liking the ap- 
pearance of the city at that time, came to 
Naperville and opened a shop, and has since 
conducted business there. In 185'J, he add- 
ed the tobacco and cigar business; in 1ST'!. 
sold out the barber business to one of his ap- 
prentices, and devoted his entire attention to 
the tobacco and cigar trade, which grew to 
large proportions, he traveling and selling 
goods in the adjoining counties. In Decem- 
ber, 1N74. the frame building owned by Mr. 
Schulz. containing the tobacco store and bar- 
ber shop, was destroyed by tire, he suffering 



a loss of about $10,000, insurance only $1,- 
000. After the tire, he purchased the good 
will of his former barber business and opened 
a shop, keeping also a stock of tobacco and 
cigars; improved the site of his former bus- 
iness place, to which he added a lot, and 
built his present two-story brick block, '-^ >x- 
1 1 ), located corner of Main and Jefferson 
streets, now occupied by the post office and 
his tobacco and barber business. In New 
York, in 1855, he married Eliza Jeep, a na- 
tive of Hanover, Germany, who has borne him 
five children, of whom three are living, viz., 
Bertha, Robert and Emma. In January, 
1882, Mr. Schulz visited his parents, who are 
living in Prussia; his father is now eighty- 
one, his mother seventy-nine years of age. 

JOHN F. STROHEKER, blacksmith. Na- 
perville, was born in Wurteniberg, Germany, 
in 1838. His mother died when he was 
seven years old, and, two years after his fa- 
ther and family emigrated to the United 
States and settled in Wayne County, Ohio, 
where they lived about eight years; thence 
removed to Plainfield, III, where they lived 
one year, and, in 1855, came to Naperville. 
Jacob, subject's father, who had followed 
farming in Ohio, began weaving carpet and 
doing general labor in Naperville after he 
came there; since 1877, however, he has been 
engaged exclusively in weaving. John F. 
worked at farming and teaming for a year, 
and, in the fall of 185(5, was apprenticed to 
N Lent, blacksmith, of Naperville, under 
whom he served two years; he then worked 
at his trade as journeyman at Joliet, Plain- 
field, Aurora and Kaneville, 111. At the lat- 
ter place, August 8, 1861, he enlisted in Com- 
pany A. Fifty-second Illinois Infantry, and 
was chosen Corporal. In the battle of Pitts- 
burg Landing, he received a wound in the 
left thigh, and came home to Naperville, and. 
June 18 following, again joined his regiment, 



38 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



and participated in the battles of Iuka and 
Corinth, and was promoted to the rank of 
Sergeant. January 17, 1864, the regiment 
disbanded, and he came home, but re-enlisted 
for three years, and took part in the battles 
of Resaca, in the Atlanta campaign and the 
march to the sea, and through the Carol inas. 
In July, 1865, he returned home to Naper- 
ville, and, three days afterward, went to work 
at his trade. In November of the same year, 
he opened a shop at Turner Junction, remain- 
ing there till 1867, when he went to Kane- 
ville and worked as journeyman for a year, 
after which he opened a shop there. After 
running a shop in Kaneville for two years 
and a half, be came to Naperville, built a 
house, and, one year later, bought his pres- 
ent shop, where he has ever since carried 
on business. February 22, 1862, he mar- 
ried Maria Good, a native of Pennsylva- 
nia, who has borne him two children — 
Charles F. and William S. Mr. Stroheker 
is a Republican; is a pensioner; in 1876, he 
organized the Naperville Light Guards, num- 
bering seventy-two members, of which force 
he was Captain for two years. 

GILES E. STRONG, farmer, P. O. Auro- 
ra, 111., is a native of Tompkins County, N. 
Y. , born in the year 1827, eldest of five chil- 
dren born to William J. and Caroline Blod- 
gett Strong; they were natives of Tompkins 
County, N. Y., and Massachusetts, though 
she lived in New York at the time of her 
marriage. In 1834, they came West by the 
lakes, and lived in the vicinity of Naperville, 
and, in the fall, he made a claim in Section 
30, which he sold in the spring of 1835, and 
made a claim on Section 20, settled on it and 
lived there until the year 1857, when he sold 
out to his son, G. E., and moved to Aurora, 
where he has lived since. While living in 
Du Page County, Mr. Strong served as Jus- 
tice of the Peace, and also as County Com- 



missioner. Mrs. Strong died in Aurora in 
1878. Our subject was raised on the farm. 
In addition to a common school course of 
study, he attended several terms at the Col- 
legiate Institute of Rochester, N. Y. On be- 
coming twenty-one, he drove an ox team to 
California, where he lived about six years, 
during which time he followed mining, team- 
ing, and also carried on a ranch a few years. 
In 1855, he returned home via Panama and 
New York, and lived at home until October 
of that year, when he married Miss Frances 
M. Crane, and rented his father's farm, and 
the next year he went to Kansas and Nebras- 
ka, taking a quarter section claim in the lat- 
ter State, and also made a quarter-section 
claim in Kansas. He returned home the 
same year, and went to California to settle 
up his business, via Panama; returned same 
route the following spring, and bought his 
father's farm, and has lived here ever since. 
By the marriage there have been four chil- 
dren, three living — Edw'ard C, Wilbur, 
(died), Nettie E. , Mervin W. He is a Repub- 
lican. 

L. S. SHAFER, contractor and builder, 
planingmill, Naperville, is a native of Dau- 
phin County, Penn., born in 1837. When 
quite young, he began working in a wagon 
shop, at which he continued until he was 
eighteen years old, when he went to Dixon, 
111., and worked there as a carpenter about 
six months; then to Naperville; thence to 
Kansas, remaining one year, when he re- 
turned to Naperville; thence to Indiana, and 
again to Naperville. In September, 1861, he 
enlisted in the Eighth Illinois Cavalry, Com- 
pany E, and served three years and one 
month, being First Sergeant when discharged; 
was in battles of Williamsburg, seven days' 
fight around Richmond, South Mountain, 
Gettysburg and the other engagements of his 
regiment. After the war, he returned to Na- 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



perville and became the foreman and machin- 
ist in the agricultural works, where he re- 
mained about five years. He then erected 
his present saw-mill, and conducted it, in 
('< mnection with his business as a contractor and 
builder, he building many of the best build- 
ings in the city. In 1866, he married Miss 
Hannah Naugle. a native of Cumberland 
County, Penn.; they have four children, two 
living — Elizabeth and Adelia. 

S. E. SHIMP. farmer and auctioneer, P. 
O. Naperville, is a native of Lancaster 
County, Penn.. born in the year 1831, and is 
the eldest of eleven children born to William 
and Nancy Eberly Shimp; they were natives 
of Pennsylvania; he was a farmer, and died on 
his old homestead in Pennsylvania in the year 
1878; Mrs. Shimp is living in Pennsylvania, at 
the old homestead. Our subject was raised on 
the farm, and attended a few months at the dis- 
trict schools. In 1851, he went to Ohio and 
apprenticed to the blacksmith's trade in 
Wooster. and served for three years. He 
then came to Illinois and stopped at Plain- 
field, where he followed his trade for three 
years, when he moved to Naperville and fol- 
lowed his trade until the spring of 1861, 
when he married Miss Catharine L. Kline, a 
native of Pennsylvania, who came to Du Page 
County with her parents when she was young. 
After the marriage, he settled on a farm in 
Naperville Township, and has farmed most of 
the time since. In 1861, he was elected 
Sheriff, and served for two years. He then 
came to his present place, and. in 1876, was 
again elected Sheriff, and has been re-elected 
twice since. In 1876, he moved to Wheaton, 
and lived there until 1880, when he came to 
the farm. Mr. Shimp first voted for Franklin 
Pierce, but has been a Republican since the 
formation of that party. By the marriage 
there have been eleven children, of whom 
eight are living. During the past twenty- 



three years, Mr. Shimp has followed the bus- 
iness of auctioneer. 

GEORGE SIMPSON, farmer, P. O. Na- 
perville, is a native of Vermont, born at Al- 
burg in the year 1837, and is the youngest of 
eight children born to George and Tamer 
(Bell) Simpson; they were nativesof England; 
they married there, and came to the United 
States about the year 1831, and settled in 
Vermont, where they farmed until 1837, 
when they moved to Clinton County, N. Y. , 
and farmed there until about the year 1852, 
when they came to Illinois and settled in 
Du Page County, where they farmed until 
their death — he in 1857, and she in 1875. 
Our subject was raised on the farm, and re- 
ceived a common-school education. His fa- 
ther died when he was in his twenty-first year, 
and he took the home farm, buying out the 
heirs, and farmed the place until about 1873, 
when he rented it out, and purchased and oc- 
cupied the place. In 1871, he married Miss 
De Etta C. Marlet, a native of Otsego 
County, N. Y. ; she died in 1876; they had 
two children, only one of whom is living, 
Grace E. In 1880, he married Miss Etta 
Ferry, a native of Du Page County. 111.; 
they have one child, viz., Birdie. He owns 
251 acres in this county, located on the rail- 
road, two and a half miles west of Naperville. 

ANDREW STOOS, farmer, P. O. Naper- 
ville, is a native of Alsace, France (now Ger- 
many); he was born in the year 1828; he re- 
ceived a common- school education, and, at 
the age of fifteen, he apprenticed to the wag- 
on-makers trade, and served three years; he 
then went to Paris, where he worked at his 
trade until 1851. He then came to the Unit- 
ed States, landing at New Orleans, in which 
rity he worked at his trade about nine months; 
he then went to St. Louis, whence he left for 
Chicago, but stopped off at Naperville and 
went to work in the plow factory, where he 



40 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



worked for nine years. He then started a 
wagon shop of his own, which he conducted 
for five years. He then traded his business 
for his farm, and occupied the place, and has 
farmed here since. In 1856, he married Miss 
Jennie Kreyder, a native of Alsace, France, 
who came to the United States with her par- 
ents and settled in Du Page County. By 
this marriage there have been ten children, 
nine of whom are living. He owns 200 acres 
of land, located one and a half miles west of 
Naperville. He is Democratic in his poli- 
tics, and has served as Road Commissioner 
for three years. 

WILLIAM SIMPSON, farmer, P. O. Na- 
perville, is a native of Vermont, born in Al- 
bui'g in the year 1832, and is the sixth of eight 
children born to George and Tamer (Bell) 
Simpson. He was raised on the farm, and 
received a common-school education. When 
he became of age, he began work on his own 
account, working at carpentering, which bus- 
iness he continued for some twelve years, 
and then occupied his present place, and has 
farmed since. In 1863, he married Miss 
Adelia Ferry, a native of Du Page County. 
By the marriage there are three children — 
Edgar G., Carrie and Oscar. He owns 145 
acres of land, located on the railroad three 
miles west of Naperville. He has been Re- 
publican in politics. 

GEORGE STRUBLER, livery, feed and 
sale stable, Naperville, was born in Warren 
County, Penn., in 1829; is the eldest of a 
family of four children born to George and 
Sallie (Stucker) Strubler. He came to Na- 
perville when seven years of age; received a 
fair education, and, when twenty years old, 
began teaming to Chicago. In 1853, he was 
elected Constable of Naperville, which posi- 
tion he has ever since held, with the excep- 
tion of eight years, when he acted as Police, 
Constable and Collector of Naperville; has 



been Village Treasurer two years, Deputy 
Sheriff two years under P. Strubler, and six 
years under Kline. In 1850, he married 
Wilhelmina Meyers, a native of Pennsylva- 
nia, who came to Illinois with her parents; 
she died in 1859, leaving one child, Charles 
G. In 1860, he married his second wife, 
Leo Hartman, a native of Pennsylvania, who 
has borne him two children, viz., Frank and 
Edward. Mr. Strubler is a Republican. He 
began the livery business in the fall of 1856, 
and has ever since carried it on. 

ALFRED SHAFFER, contractor and 
builder, Naperville, was born in Dauphin 
County, Penn., September 7, 1881, and re- 
ceived an ordinary education in the district 
schools of his native State. When eighteen 
years of age, he was apprenticed to the car, 
pouter and cabinet-making trade, at which 
he served three years, and worked one year nt 
his trade in Western Pennsylvania. In the 
spring of 1854, he came to Chicago, where 
he followed his trade for about six months ; 
thence to Naperville, where he remained three 
years; he then went East to his home, and, 
after a stay of six months, returned to Naper- 
ville, where he remained till 1858. He then 
moved to Kansas, worked there four months, 
then went to St. Paul; thence to St. Louis; 
thence to Beardstown, and, in I860, returned 
to Naperville. In 1865, he enlisted in Com- 
pany D, One Hundred and Fifty-sixth Illi- 
nois Infantry, and served till the close of the 
war; enlisted as a soldier, but was detailed 
to work at his trade, and worked principally 
at Chattanooga and Memphis. At the close 
of the war, he returned to Naperville, where 
he has since been in business; since 1862, 
has been working on his own account, taking 
contraots of building. He married, July 5, 
1861, to Elizabeth Stover, a native of York 
County. Penn., who has borne him five chil- 
dren, three of whom are living, viz., Emma 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP 



41 



S., Edmond C. and Lewis F. Mr. Shaffer 
is a supporter of the Republican party. 

MATTHIAS A. STEPHENS, contractor 
and builder, Naperville, was born in Lehigh 
County, Penn.. in 1839; his parents, Jacob 
and Judia (Leibig) Stephens, were also natives 
of that county, and now reside at Allentown, 
Penn. Subject, at the age of sixteen, began 
working in the iron mines, and finally became 
overseer of a mine. When twenty-one years 
of age, he went West, to Tiffin, Ohio, where 
he worked in a grist mill for a year, then 
came to Naperville, to which place he bad 
been recommended by a young man whom he 
met in Tiffin. Ohio. He arrived in Naper- 
ville in April, 1861, and worked on a farm 
about one and a half years, then enlisted in 
Company B, One Hundred and Fifth Regi- 
ment Illinois Infantry, and served until the 
close of the war. During his time of serv- 
ice, he participated in the battles of Resaca. 
Lost Mountain. Burnt Hickory. New Hope 
Church, Peach Tree Creek and Savannah, 
being in the Atlanta campaign, march to the 
sea and through the Carolinas. After the 
war, he returned to Naperville, and, in July, 
1865, married Elizabeth Yost, a native of 
Naperville, who has borne him five children, 
four of whom are living: Ida M.. Emma L. (de- 
ceased), Nora L., Josie L., and Sherman H. 
After his marriage, he learned the carpenter's 
trade, at which he worked as journeyman 
seven years; he then formed a partnership 
with C. B. Schuster, with whom he engaged 
in the contracting and building business four 
years; then with Abraham Kinsey four years, 
since which time he has carried on business 
himself. 

NICHOLAS STENOER, deceased, was 
born in Germany in 1830, and came to the 
United States with his parents, who settled 
at Naperville. In July. 1852, he married 
Elizabeth Snibley, born in Germany in 1831, 



daughter of Jacob and Louisa (Dather) Snib- 
ley. natives of Germany, who emigrated to 
the United States in 1832, and located in 
Warren County, Penn. Jacob Snibley, who 
was a farmer by occupation, removed from 
Pennsylvania to this county with his family 
in 1835, and settled two miles east of Naper- 
ville; his first wife died in 1850, leaving ten 
children ; the same year, he went with a 
company raised in this vicinity to Califor- 
nia, traveling with teams by the overland 
route; he remained in California two years, 
and returned to this county, making the re- 
turn trip via the water route; he died in June, 
1863; his second wife, Saloma Dather, sister 
of his first wife, died in 1864. The subject 
of this sketch, who was engaged in the brew- 
ing business in company with his brother 
John, died December 31, 1865. Of his seven 
children, five are living. Mrs. Stenger has 
recently purchased the old homestead where 
her parents first settled. She now resides in 
Naperville. 

SIMON STRAUSS, Strauss & Getsch, 
manufacturers of the Naperville Plows, Na- 
perville. This gentleman, one of the old pio- 
neer plowmen of Du Page County, is a na- 
tive of Lehigh County, Penn., born in 1819; 
he was raised on the farm, and, at the age of 
eighteen, apprenticed to the blacksmith's 
trade, and worked at the trade until 1847, 
when he came West and opened a shop in 
Naperville, and, about two years later, he be- 
gan work in the plow shop of A. S. Jones, 
where he remained for 6even years, after 
which he resumed business on his own ac- 
count, doing business successively at Bloom- 
ingdalo, Lisle Station and Barber Corners. 
At the latter place, he purchased ninety acres 
of land and farmed nearly two years. He 
then returned to Naperville and worked in 
the plow shop there, then conducted by 
Boughton & Co., for three years, after which 



41 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



he established his present business, and, in 
1876, associated in partnership with himself 
Mr. Gretsch. The firm make the old Naper- 
ville or Jones Plow, which is celebrated for 
its light draught and efficient work. It is 
particularly adapted to^this^soil, and has for 
the past four or five years been awarded the 
premium. Mr. Strauss was married, in 1S43, 
to Miss Catharine Butz, a native of Lehigh 
County, Penn. ; she died about 18150 ; they 
had five children. In 1862, he married Miss 
Mary Frost, a native of Lebanon County, 
Penn. 

WILLIAM SHIMP, carriage manufact- 
urer, Naperville, is a native of Lancaster 
County, Penn., born September 24, 1833; 
was raised on the farm, and received a dis- 
trict-school education. When he was eight 
years of age, his father died, and he lived 
with neighbors until he was about sixteen, 
when he went to Wooster, Ohio, where his 
uncle lived, and learned the carriage-maker' s 
trade, after which he worked as a journey- 
man in Terre Haute and Greencastle, Ind. , 
and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. About 1857, he 
came to Naperville, and, a few years later, he 
engaged in business for himself. In 1861, 
he enlisted in the Fifty-fifth Illinois Infantry, 
and was elected Second Lieutenant in Com- 
pany B. "While in Camp Douglas, he saw 
the Forty-second Illinois Infantry preparing 
to move, and determined to try and join it; 
he made application, and finally was told to 
£>ick his company; he viewed the regiment, 
and decided on Company H; the Colonel and 
Adjutant of the regiment disputed as to his 
pluck, and the Adjutant, a very large man, 
stepped up and gave him a blow on the breast; 
the little I ieutenant sprang at him, and 
stated, if the Adjutant raised a hand, he 
would knock him over; the officer stepped 
back, and said he would make a soldier; he en- 
tered the company as private, and. later, was 



made a Sergeant; the Adjutant became Col- 
onel, and was always a good friend to Sergt. 
Shimp; the latter's old Company B, of the 
Fifty-fifth, was in the battle of Pittsburg 
Landing, and lost every officer and twenty- 
eight men. Mr. Shimp served in the Forty- 
second three years and two months, and was 
in the battles of Corinth, siege of Nashville, 
Stone River, Chickamauga. the Atlanta cam- 
paign, and other engagements. In 1864, he 
returned to Naperville, and has continued his 
business here since. In 1861, he married 
Miss Louisa E. Moyer, a native of North- 
ampton County, Penn. ; she died May 3, 
1879; they had nine children, eight of whom 
are living, viz., Andrew, Alice. David, Will- 
iam, Abbie, Dollie, Ida and Burd; Louisa 
died. 

JACOB SALFISBERG, proprietor of the 
Naperville Quarry, Naperville, was born in 
Switzerland in 1834. He received an ordi- 
nary education, and, at the age of seventeen 
years, apprenticed to the miller's trade, 
served two years, and afterward worked at his 
trade in his native land. In 1854, the fain 
ily emigrated to the United States and settled 
in Oswego, 111., where his father died; his 
mother now resides in Aurora, 111. Subject 
worked at his trade in Oswego, 111. , for five 
years; then went to Chicago, where he tend- 
ed a flour and feed store for a year; he then 
went to Aurora, 111, where he manufactured 
lime for eight years; thence, in December, 
1868, to Naperville, and purchased his pres- 
ent quarry property, consisting of seven and 
three- fourths acres, underlaid with the well- 
known Naperville stone. He married, on 
January 4, 1859, Anna Salfisberg, a native of 
Switzerland, who has born him nine chil- 
dren. Mr. Salfisberg is a Republican. 

T. J. SPRAGUE, M. D., Naperville, was 
born in 1855 in Du Page Township, Will 
Co., 111., where his parents, T. J. and Lydia 



NAPERVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



43 



Swift) Sprague, now reside. He received a 
rudimentary education in the district schools, 
and^ afterward attended the Lockport; High 
School. In 1875, he began reading medicine 
with Dr. William Hanley, of Lockport; in 
1876, entered the Rush Medical College, and 
graduated in February, 1S79. He began the 
practice of his profession in Chicago, in part- 
nership with his preceptor, Dr. William Han- 
ley. who had moved to that city, remaining 
in Chicago till October of the same year; 
thence he moved to Rockford, 111., where he 
carried on a drug store in addition to his 
practice till February, 1881, when he sold 
out his business and came to Naperville, 
where he engaged in the practice of his pro- 
fession, and, in the following August, formed 
a partnership with Dr. J. H. Chew. In Oc- 
tober, 1881, Dr. Chew removed to Chicago, 
and Dr. Sprague has since carried on the 
business himself. He is a member of the 
Aurora Medical Society. In March, 1880, 
he married Emma, daughter of Jonathan 
Royce, of Du Page Township. Will Co., 111. ; 
they have one child, Frank. 

E. B. STOLP, farmer, P. O. Eola, is a 
native of Du Page County, 111., and was born 
on his present place in the year 1857, and is 
the second of six children born to Charles 
W. and Sarah (Bristol) Stolp, who were na- 
tives of New York, and came to Illinois in 
1835. Mr. Stolp has always lived on his 
present place. In November, 1880, he mar- 
ried Miss Alice Updyke, a native of Kendall 
County, 111. After his marriage, he took the 
management of his father's place, the latter 
moving to Aurora. He is a Republican. 

DANIEL STRUBLER, blacksmith and 
manufacturer of wagons, etc., Naperville, is 
a native of Naperville, 111. ; he was born Sep- 
tember 15, 1837, son of George and Saloma 
(Stacker) Strubler. He received a common- 
school education, and, at the age of seven- 



teen, apprenticed to the blacksmith's trade. 
In April, 1858, he opened a shop of his own, 
in company with Mr. Samuel Shimp; the 
latter, after a year and a half, sold his inter- 
est, and Mr. Strubler formed another part- 
nership, which lasted about three years, since 
which time he has been alone in business. 
He does a general blacksmith business, is a 
first-class mechanic, and, in October, 1866, 
was awarded the first premium by the Du 
Page County Agricultural and Mechanical 
Association for horseshoes finished with 
hammer. Connected with his shop, he owns 
a wagon shop, which is rented to a wagon- 
builder, the two shops manufacturing car- 
riages and wagons. July 14, 1859, he mar- 
ried Miss Mary Krimbill, a native of Penn- 
sylvania, and, at the time of her marriage, 
living with her uncle, Mr. S. M. Skinner, an 
old resident of this vicinity. They had one 
child, since deceased; living with them is 
Lorena Krimbill Strubler, an adopted child. 
A. T. THATCHER, farmer, P. O. Naper- 
ville, 111., is a native of Wayne County, N. 
Y. ; he was born in the year 180U, and is the 
eldest of seven children born to Thomas and 
Roxana (Look) Thatcher; they were natives of 
Rhode Island and Massachusetts; they mar- 
ried in New York; he came West in 1838, and 
brought his family out the next year; he took 
a claim near Naperville, where he lived until 
his death, and farmed about one year, when 
his wife died. He then resided in Naperville 
about ten years, carrying on the grocery bus- 
iness. In 1851, he went to California by the 
overland route, and remained there about two 
years, where he followed mining. Return- 
ing to Naperville, he resumed the grocery bus- 
iness, and, a year later, came to bis farm, in 
the fall of 1860. Mrs. Thos. Thatcher is now 
ninety-three years of age, and living with her 
son, A. T. Our subject was raised on his 
father's farm, and received a common-school 



44 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



education. In 1838, he came West with his 
father and made a claim to his present place, 
which he afterward bought at the land office 
in Chicago. In 1840, he went to New York 
and married Miss Mary Cottrell, and returned 
to his claim, and has lived here ever since. 
In May, 1841, Mrs. Thatcher died. In 1848, 
Mr. Thatcher again married, and the follow- 
ing children were born to him : C. T. Thatcher, 
teacher, Rochester, N. Y. ; Horace L. 
Thatcher and Emma L., now living at home 
with their parents. 

JOHN WARNE, retired, Eola. 111., is a 
native of Hunterdon County, N. J., and was 
born August 30, 1795; his father, John 
Warne, was born at Cranbury, N. J.; was a 
soldier in the Revolutionary war, a farmer, 
and carried on a flour-mill. Our subject was 
raised on his father's farm, and assisted in 
the mill. When he was thirteen years of 
age, he engaged as clerk in a general store, 
and clerked until he became twenty-one, 
when he engaged in the business on hie own 
account, a ad, after three years, he moved to 
Warren Count}', where he bought a farm and 
put up a store and hotel, which he conducted 
some fifteen years. During this time, the 
Morris Canal was made, and Mr. Warne took 
a contract and excavated one mile of the ca- 
nal, in which job he employed 200 men. In 
1832, he came to Washtenaw County, Mich., 
where he farmed two years. During the lat- 
ter year, he assessed his township (Ann Ar- 
bor). In 1834, he came to Illinois, made a 
claim to his present place and erected a log 
cabin. About four miles west of their place 
were camped about fifteen hundred Indians, 
of whom Mr. Warne has many pleasant rec- 
ollections. Mrs. Warne could talk the lan- 
guage, and often visited the Indians, and they 
would return the visits, and never did any- 
thing to mar the friendship between them. 
Mr. Warne has lived here ever since his set- 



tlement. He was married in New Jersey, in 
the year 1819, to Miss Sarah Stires, a native 
of Hunterdon County, N. J. ; she was born 
in the year 1801; they had eleven children, 
of whom eight are living — two sons and six 
daughters; their eldest son is now sixty-three 
years of age. During his residence in New 
Jersey, he served for a number of years as 
Justice of the Peace. Mr. Warne has been 
a Democrat in politics, and has been a mem- 
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church for 
nearly fifty years; the early religious socie- 
ties met at his house. He kept the post office 
here in his house, called the Big Woods Post 
Office, for some ten or twelve years, and had 
daily mails. While in New Jersey, he stud- 
ied surveying, and followed it there for some 
time, and he also did surveying here in his 
vicinity. He has in his possession an old 
claim book, and in the beginning is a pream- 
ble forming the early settlers into an associa- 
tion for the protection of their claims from 
intruders. 

MATTHEW WEISMANTEL, jeweler, and 
dealer in watches, clocks and silverware, Na- 
perville, was born in Germany in 1841; is 
the fourth child of a family of eight children 
born to John and Rosina (Preisendorfer) 
Weismantel. His parents were natives of 
Germany; came to the United States in 1846, 
and, in 1855, settled in Joliet, 111., where 
they died; his father was a stone-cutter by 
trade. Subject received a common school 
education, and, at the age of fourteen years, 
entered a general store in Defiance, Ohio, 
where he remained three years. He then 
apprenticed to the watch-maker's trade at 
Fort Wayne, Ind. ; served three years; then 
worked as journeyman one year. In 1861, 
he came to Chicago and enlisted in Company 
A, Fifty-eighth Regiment Illinois Infantry, 
and remained in service from October, 1861, 
to April, 1866, participating in the engage- 



NAPEKVILLE TOWNSHIP. 



45 



merits at Fort Donelson, Pittsburg Landing, 
Iuka, Corinth, Nashville, Mobile, besides 
other minor engagements in which his regi- 
ment took part, and was also in the Red 
River expedition. He enlisted as private; 
was successively promoted till he became 
First Lieutenant, which rank he held when 
he was discharged. After the war, he came 
to Naperville and opened a jewelry store, in 
which business he has since been engaged. 
In 1866, he married Gertrude Schumaker, a 
native of Germany, who came to Fort Wayne, 
Ind. , with her parents. From this marriage 
six children have been born, viz., Francis J., 
Gertrude, Catherina, Lora, John and Joseph 
H. Mr. Weismantel is a member of the 
Catholic Church, and is a Democrat. 

OLIVER J. WRIGHT, farmer, P. O. Na- 
perville, is a native to Illinois, born in the 
year 1848, and was raised on the farm, three 
miles west of Naperville. In addition to the 
common schools, he attended the Jennings 
Seminary, of Aurora, for three years. At the 
age of twenty, he began teaching in Du Page 
County, and taught the greater part of six 
years. He then engaged in the grocery bus- 
iness in Naperville, and continued in busi- 
ness for about four years, after which he came 
and took his father's farm on the shares, and, 
three years later, bought the place. June 
23, 1880, he married Miss Luella Finch, a 
native of Du Page County; they have ono 
child, Elzora V. He is Republican in poli- 
tics, and has served as Township Trustee two 



terms; he has also served as Director and 
Marshal of the Du Page County Agricultural 
Association. He owns 163 acres, located 
three miles west of Naperville. 

ALBERT YOST, of the firm of Sherer & 
Yost, dealers in hardware, and tin-manufact- 
urers, Naperville, is a native of this county, 
born in Naperville in 1854, youngest of a 
family of five children born to Jacob and 
Magdalena (Voght) Yost, natives of France 
and Germany, who came to the "United States 
about 1840, and settled in this county. Ja- 
cob Yost, subject's father, followed teaming 
and well-digging ; in 1854 he went overland, 
with Thomas Finley's company, to Califor- 
nia, where he stayed fourteen years; return- 
ed, in 1868, to Naperville, and resumed well- 
digging, and is now living retired; he is now 
sixty-nine, his wife sixty-eight years of age. 
Subject was raised in Naperville, where he 
received an ordinary education. At the age 
of sixteen, he was apprenticed to the miller's 
trade, at which he served three years; after- 
ward worked several years at his trade as a 
journeyman, then conducted the mill for Mr. 
Robert Naper for about two years. In 1880, 
he formed a partnership with Christian 
Sherer and engaged in his present business, 
which has since been conducted under the 
firm name of Sherer & Yost. In 1877, he 
married Amelia Stenger, daughter of the late 
Nicholas Stenger; they have two children, 
viz., Libbie and Grace. 



46 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



COL. C. P. J. ARION, real estate and farm- 
ing. P. 0. Wheaton, was born in Jefferson 
County, Ky.; was raised on the farm, and re- 
ceived a common-school education. When 
about eighteen years of age, he purchased one- 
half interest in the Indiana Republican, pub- 
lished at Madison, Ind., and was connected 
with the paper for upward of twelve years, 
during which time he became the sole editor 
and proprietor, finally selling his paper, which 
became the Republican Banner, under which 
name it again came into his possession for a 
short period, he selling out, and engaged in the 
mercantile business, establishing the first book 
and stationery business in Madison, where he 
also conducted the wholesale grocery and iron 
store business. In 1S58, he went to Chicago, 
where he engaged in the job printing business, 
and later took a position at the head of the 
dead letter department, where he remained for 
seven years, after which he engaged in real es- 
tate business, and in 1871 retired to his farm, 
one mile southwest of Wheaton, where he has 
lived since. During the past five years, he has 
carried on a real estate office in Wheaton. Col. 
Arion, as might be judged from his career, 
early took an active interest in politics. As a 
Henry Clay Whig, he represented Jefferson 
County in the Indiana Legislature, and later 
was elected a member of the State Senate. He 
has been a Republican since the organization of 
the party, and took an active part in the can- 
vass for Lincoln. He has been twice married. 
His first wife, Miss Lucretia Givens, was a na- 
tive of Kentucky ; she and their six children 
all since deceased. The second marriage was 
to Mrs. Beson, formerly Miss Helen M. Test, 
daughter of Judge John Test, and aunt to Gen. 
Lew Wallace. 



WINSLOW ACKERMAN, farmer, P. 0. 
Prospect Park, is a native of Onondaga Count} - , 
N. Y. He was born in the year 1826 ; was 
raised on the farm, and received a common- 
school education. The family came to Illinois 
in 1833, and settled in the vicinity of Prospect 
Park. Our subject lived at home uutil he was 
twenty-three years of age, when he married 
Miss Permelia Holmes. She is a native of New 
York, and came to Du Page County, 111., with 
her parents when she was a child. After the 
marriage, he settled on his present place, which 
consists of 180 acres, located one and one- 
quarter miles northeast of Prospect Park. He 
has held the office of Highway Commissioner. 
By the marriage there have been four children 
— Eben, Loraine, Perry and Adella ; all the 
children are married, and all but one live in the 
county. Mr. Ackerman is a Republican. When 
he first came to his place, there were nine acres. 
He conducted a threshing-machine for some 
thirty years, and kept buying additions to his 
place until he now owns 180 acres. 

MILES ACKERMAN, farmer, P. O. Lorn 
bard, 111., is a native of Onondaga County. N. 
Y., born in the year 1831, and is the third in 
a family of five children born to John D. and 
Lurania (Churchill) Ackerman ; they were na- 
tives of New York. Mr. Ackerman's father 
was a native of Holland, and came to America 
soon after his marriage. John D. Ackerman 
and family came West to Illinois, and settled 
here in Milton Township, where J. D. Acker- 
man died in 1859. Mrs. Ackerman is living on 
the old homestead, being now in her eighty- 
first year. Miles Ackerman lived at home 
until he was twenty-two years of age; he was 
reared on the farm and received a common 
school education. In 1S52, he married Miss 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



47 



Jane Cox. a native of England. She came to 
United States of America with her parents. 
who settled in Du Page County in 1850, and 
followed farming. By the marriage there have 
been tive children, of whom four are living. 
viz., Edwin M., Emma, Charles M. and Fannie. 
After his marriage, he bought a farm in Bloom- 
ingdale Township, and lived there until 1861, 
when he came to his present place. In June, 
1864. he enlisted in the One Hundred and 
Forty first Illinois Infantry, Company H, and 
served about five months. He was Corporal in 
his company. From the army he returned 
home and has lived here since ; he owns 138 
acres, located in Sections 1, 2, 11 and 12. 

JONATHAN BLANCHARD, President 
Emeritus Wheaton College, is a native of Rock- 
ingham, Windham Co., Vt., born January 19, 
1811, and is the ninth in a family of thirteen 
children born to Jonathan and Polly (Lovell) 
Blanchard. They were natives of Massachu- 
setts and Vermont ; he was a farmer, in which 
business he was extensively - engaged. Our 
subject was raised on the farm. At the age of 
twelve years, began study* in the Chester Acad- 
emy, and in his fifteenth year he began teaching 
public school, and taught during winters until 
he became of age, by which time he had grad- 
uated from the Middlebuiy College, and became 
the Principal of the Plattsburg Academy, the 
oldest chartered school in that locality, which 
he taught several years. He has always, since 
his childhood, been an advocate of temperance, 
and at the age of eighteen he delivered a speech 
on that subject at Rockingham, and continued 
to speak in public thereafter. His early speeches 
were printed and widely circulated in the neigh- 
borhood. From the Plattsburg Academy he 
went to the Andover Theological Seminary, and 
in that year received an appointment to lecture 
in the State House at Boston, before the Amer- 
ican Institute. He was next appointed by 
the American Anti-Slavery Society to lecture 
against slavery. He lectured one year in Penn- 



sylvania, meeting in public debate Gov. Pinney, 
of Liberia, and many leading lawyers of the 
State. He then went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where 
he completed his theological course, under Dr. 
Lyman Beecher, of Laue Seminary. While 
there, he was called to the pastorate of the 
Sixth Presbyterian Church, of Cincinnati, where 
he presided for nine years, and received over 
five hundred members to the church. He was 
then called to the Presidency of Knox College, 
G-alesburg, 111., which institution he found in 
debt, and left it in 1860 out of debt, with prop- 
erty worth $400,000, and all of its present 
permanent buildings were erected during his 
administration. From Galesburg he came to 
Wheaton College, and served as its President 
until in June, 1882, when he was succeeded in 
that office by* his son, though he was continued 
by the board as President Emeritus, with an 
annual stipend. In 1838, in Middlebuiy, Vt., 
he married Miss Mary Avery Bent, a native of 
Middlebuiy, Vt., by which marriage there have 
been twelve children, of whom seven are living. 
While in Middlebuiy College, Mr. Blanchard 
was editor, and with others established the 
Under Graduate, a college paper, which has 
continued to this day. He also aided in start- 
ing and edited the Watchman of the Valley. 
which paper has under different names been 
continued to this date. At Knox College, he 
started the Christian Era, since absorbed by 
the Independent. In 1868, he started and is 
editor of the Christian < 'ynosun , a sixteen-page 
weekly. Since 1840, he has been known as an 
open enemy to all secret organizations, and in 
1881, he was nominated a candidate for Presi- 
dent of the United States of America, by the 
American party in convention assembled at 
Galesburg, 111. 

CHARLES A. BLANCHARD, A. B., A.M., 
President Wheaton College, is a native of Gales- 
burg. Knox Co., 111., born November 8, 1848, 
and lived in his native town for twelve years, 
when the family came to Wheaton. Our sub- 



48 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



ject received a public school course of study at 
Galesburg, and in 1870 graduated from Whea- 
ton College. In 1865, he was employed to 
teach penmanship in the college, and continued 
until his graduating in 1870. He then engaged 
in lecturing for the National Christian Associa- 
tions opposed to secret societies, delivering over 
four hundred lectures in nineteen States and 
Canada. In 1872, he was elected Principal of 
the Preparatory School in Wheaton College, in 
which position he remained several years, and 
was then elected Professor of the English Lan- 
guage and Literature, in which department he 
continued until 1880, when he was elected Pro- 
fessor of Logic and Rhetoric, where he contin- 
ued until June, 1882. In 1879, he was elected 
Vice President of the college, and during two 
years, owing to the illness of the President, he 
performed the duties of that office. In June, 
1882, upon the resignation of the President, he 
was elected President of the college. October 
16, 1873, he married Miss Margaret E. Milli- 
gan, daughter of A. M. Milligan, D. D., pastor 
of the First Reformed Presbyterian Church, of 
Pittsburgh. They had four children, three of 
whom are living. In 1862, he became a mem- 
ber of the College Church, and in 1875 became 
acting pastor of the Presbyterian Church of 
Paxton, and served there one year, after which 
he preached transiently, and in May, 1877, he 
became the acting pastor of the Independent 
Church at Streator, 111., for one year. He then 
became pastor of the College Church, and has 
continued in that capacity since. 

RUFUS BLANCHARD, Wheaton, was born 
March 7, 1821, in Lyndeboro, Hillsboro Co. 
N. H. Went to New York City in 1835, and 
witnessed the great fire of that y-ear. The next 
spring, in 1836, the banks in Wall street closed 
their doors and stopped payment by a concerted 
movement. The whole city - was in an uproar, 
and the military were ordered from Govern- 
or's Island, to defend the banks from mob 
violence. The banks throughout the country 



followed the example of the New York banks, 
and specie rose to 33 per cent premium, but 
gradually fell during the two years succeed- 
ing, till it again became par with bank paper, 
as bank after bank resumed specie payments, 
first on small and next on large sums. In 
1837, R, Blanchard went to the wilderness por- 
tions of Ohio, where three years were spent in 
a bushwhacking life, hunting and trapping. In 
1840, he returned to New York, and was em- 
ployed in selling the publications of Messrs. 
Harper Brothers. In 1843, he opened a book 
store in Lowell, Mass.; in 1846, he removed to 
Cincinnati, where he continued the same busi- 
ness three years, in connection with his brother 
Edwin. During this term, he opened a branch 
of his store in New Orleans. During the win- 
ter of 1847-48, and the succeeding summer, 
witnessed the ravages of cholera along the 
Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, passing through 
Aurora and Rising Sun, Ind., from both of 
which places such as had not died had fled, 
leaving their empty houses behind. The same 
year he witnessed the great conflagration of St. 
Louis, which burnt almost the entire business 
portion of the city. It is worthy of remark 
that no case of cholera occurred at the place 
for two weeks after the fire. Out of a popula- 
tion of about 75,000, the death rate exceeded 
150 per day during the height of the epidemic. 
From Cincinnati Mr. Blanchard removed to 191 
Broadway, Neiv York, where, in connection 
with C. Morse, son of the inventor of the tele- 
graph, he commenced the publication of maps 
engraved in cerography, a new invention of 
Prof. Morse, editor of the New York Observer, 
and brother of the inventor of the telegraph. 
The same system somewhat modified is now 
used for railroad maps thoughout the country. 
From New York Mr. Blanchard transferred his 
business to Chicago, in 1854, and introduced 
the manufacture of maps in the West, in all its 
departments. Perhaps it is not too much to 
say that his early experiences, together with 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



49 



his twenty-eight years of activity in Chicago, 
have modified his aspirations in some directions, 
while they have been stimulated in other direc- 
tions into new fields of industry better under- 
stood at full maturity than when the flood-tide 
of youth sometimes propels the machine faster 
than obstacles can make .way before it, causing 
it to zigzag in its course. 

EDWARD W. BREWSTER, retired, is a 
native of Blooming Grove, Orange Co.. N. Y., 
born July 9, 1793, was raised on the farm and 
received a common school education. At the 
age of sixteen he engaged as a clerk in a gen- 
eral store in Washingtonville, Orange Co., N. 
Y.. and continued as a clerk until about the 
year 1814. when he became interested, as a 
partner, in the business and remained there un- 
til about 1820, when he sold out and bought a 
small farm and settled on the same, teaching 
school in the winters, and later became the 
Principal of the Blooming Grove Academy. 
In 1839, he sold his farm and came west, pros- 
pecting. He purchased a claim where Elgin 
now stands, and in the spring of 18-10 he occu- 
pied the same with his family ; and, finally, 
when .the land came into the market, he re- 
ceived his title from President Tyler. Mr. Brews 
ter lived on his farm until about 1854, when 
he sold the place and moved to Chicago, where 
he invested in real estate, and erected some 
buildings, and took the position of Professor of 
English in a private Jewish school, where he 
remained a number of years, during which time 
he was a member of the Board of Education of 
Chicago. After the great fire, in the spring of 
1*72 he came to Wheaton, where he has since 
lived. While living on his farm at Elgin, the 
Galena & Chicago, now the Northwestern, rail- 
read was built, and Mr. Brewster took an act- 
ive interest in furthering the interests of the 
road — granted them a free right of way through 
his land, and assisted them in many ways — 
and in recognition of his services he was given 
a free pass for himself and family over the road 



for life. December, 1815, he married Miss Aim. 
daughter of Mr. Calvin Stewart, of Orange. 
County, N. Y. She died in Chicago in 18(31. 
They had six children, three of whom are liv- 
ing — Charles and Joanna S. at home; James 
R., now in California ; Edward and Thomas 
died in infancy ; Oscar, the eldest child, lived 
to manhood, was married, and was a successful 
lumber dealer of Chicago. He died, leaving 
oue child, Josephine, living in Oak Park. 

DAVID BRONSON, retired, is a native of 
Broome County, N. Y., born in the year 1809. 
His parents, Stephen and Polly (Page) Bron- 
son, were natives of Connecticut. They mar- 
ried there, and soon after moved to New York, 
where they followed farming. David was 
raised on the farm ; he received a common 
school education, and at the age of twentj'-two 
began to work for his father, for wages, and at 
the age of twenty-seven he married Miss Rhoda 
Page, a native of New York ; she died in 1848. 
After the marriage they occupied a house 
he built on some land he had bought, and 
which he farmed until 1840, when he, his 
father and mother, brother and brother-in-law, 
sold out and came West, by teams, to Illinois, 
and located in Lisle Township, Du Page Coun- 
ty, where they bought a claim of about 500 
acres, and divided it into farms, occupied them 
and farmed the same. Stephen Bronson and 
his wife both died there. David Bronson lived 
there until 1859, when he rented his place and 
moved to Wheaton, where he has since lived. 
By the marriage there have been seven chil- 
dren, of whom oulj' two are living, viz., Marin- 
tha J., now Mrs. Mack, of Butler County, Iowa ; 
and Marilla E., now Mrs. Churchill, of Du Page 
County, 111. Mr. Bronson married Miss Polly 
A. Ashley, a native of New York, in the spring 
of 1849. They had one child, since deceased. 

LEVI BALLOU, farmer, P. 0. Wheaton, III., 
is a native of Onondaga County, N. Y., born 
in Jordan in the year 1811. His father, Eben- 
ezer Ballon, was a cooper, and died in 1817, 



50 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



leaving Mrs. Ballou (formerly Miss Marania 
Ward) with six children. Levi lived with his 
uncle from his father's death until he was 
twelve years of age. He then apprenticed to 
the carpenter's trade and remained until he 
was twenty-one, receiving a common school 
education. On becoming of age, he and an- 
other apprentice, who had just finished his time, 
set up in business for themselves, which they 
followed for about three years. Mr. Ballou 
then bought a farm and lived on it for one 
year, when, in 1836, he started for the West, 
driving by team to Lombard, where he landed 
with an old team and $15, and took up a claim, 
and a few years later bought the same of the 
Government, and farmed there some five or six 
years. He then bought a place located just 
north of where the Wheaton College now stands, 
and in 1857 he came to his present place, which 
consists of 11G acres located one mile south- 
west of Wheaton. Mr. Ballou is Republican ; 
he has served as Road Commissioner some 
twelve years ; he also served as Poormaster 
for seven years, he being in office during the 
war. August 21, 1833, he married Miss Man- 
Marble, a native of Vermont. She had gone to 
New York with her parents ; she died August 
2, 1 881. By the marriage there have been seven 
children, of whom five are living. Mr. Ballou 
is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
having joined the church in his nineteenth 
year. 

L. C. BROWN, jeweler, is a native of Chi- 
cago, 111., born in the year 1849, and is the 
third of a family of nine children born to Hack- 
aliah and Cornelia A. (Hough) Brown, who were 
natives of New York. He came West, a single 
man, at an early day ; she came West with her j 
parents, who settled in Bloomigdale Township, 
at an early day. She engaged as a school 
teacher, and married Mr. Brown about 1845. 
He was a carpenter by trade, and lived three 
years in Chicago, when the family returned to 
Du Page County, where L. C. lived thereafter. 



He received a commou school education, and 
also a commercial course in Wheaton College. 
He then went to Elgin, 111., and worked in the 
watch factory for five years. He then went to 
Grand Crossing, where he was foreman of the 
Pinion and Finishing Department of the Cornell 
Watch Company for. three years. He then 
went to San Francisco, Cal., and occupied a 
similar position in the California Watch Com- 
pany, and tvvo years later he came to Wheaton 
and engaged in his present business. He is 
Republican ; has held the office of City Treas- 
urer of Wheaton one term. June 14, 1871, he 
married Miss Evelyn A. Piper, a native of Os- 
wego, N. Y. They have three children — Ern- 
est Clair, Dora I. and Leuthold H. 

JOHN CHRISTIE, retired farmer, P. 0. 
Wheaton, 111.; is a native of Scotland, and lived 
in his native land until 1833. His father was 
a farmer, and John was brought up to the same 
pursuit. In 1833, Mr. Christie came to America 
in company with his brother-in-law, Mr. Martin 
(deceased), formerly of Naperville. They came 
to Chicago, and from there drove to Ottawa on 
a prospecting tour, returning via the Naper 
settlement, where they concluded to locate. Mr. 
Christie lived with Mr. Martin some time, when, 
at the suggestion of Capt. Joseph Naper. he 
came to his present place and bought a claim 
for $100, and put up a log house and began 
improving the place, and has lived here since. 
The place consists of about seven hundred 
acres located two and a half miles south 
of Wheaton Mr. Christie has been twice 
married ; first, to Miss Mary Boyd, a na- 
tive of Leith, Scotland ; she died March 4, 
1862. There were seven children, of whom 
three are living — John, Andrew and William — 
all living at home. Mr. Christie's second mar- 
riage occurred June 27, 1866, to Janette M. 
Keith, a native of New York ; she came to 
Du Page Count} - with her parents in an early 
day. Mr. C. is Republican in politics, and a 
member of the ConoreKational Church. 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



51 



CAPT. J. J. COLE, merchant, was born on 
the 16th day of April, 1833, in Putnam Count)', 
N. Y. His father, Berry Cole, was also a na- 
tive of Putnam Count)', and was born June 24. 
1769 ; he was a farmer and the principal owner 
of the first show or menagerie that ever trav- 
eled through the country; he died in his native 
county in 1835. Our subject was raised outhe 
farm ; he received a common-school education, 
and at the age of fifteen he went to New York 
City, where he engaged as a clerk in a dry 
goods store, and remained until he was twenty 
years of age, when he traveled for one year as 
the advertising agent for a circus and men- 
agerie. He then returned to his home; the old 
homestead was sold, and, with his mother 
brother and sister, he came to Illinois and lo- 
cated in the Big Woods, in Naperville Town- 
ship, Du Page County, and a year later they 
moved to Downer's Grove, where he farmed 
until 1861, when he enlisted in Company K, 
Thirteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Upon 
the organization of the company, he was elected 
Second Lieutenant, and was later promoted — 
first, to First Lieutenant, then to Captain. He 
was taken prisoner in the rear of Vicksburg in 
December, 1862, and held four months at 
Vicksburg, Jackson and Libby Prison, in Rich- 
mond. From the latter place, he was exchanged 
in May, 1863, and joined his regiment within a 
few rods of the place where he was taken, and 
was with his command at the battles of Look- 
out Mountain, Mission Ridge and the other en- 
gagements of the regiment. After his three 
years' service, he returned home and engaged 
in mercantile business. In 1866, he was elected 
Supervisor of his township, and was re-elected 
four terms, when he was elected County Clerk, 
and moved to Wheaton, where he has since 
lived. During his last year in his term of 
office, he formed a partnership with Mr. F. G. 
Kimball, and engaged in the mercantile busi- 
ness, of which he became the sole proprietor in 
the spring of 1877, and. in 1878, formed his 



present partnership. Mr. Cole has been twin- 
married ; first, to Miss Agnes P. Palmer, a native 
of New York ; she came to Du Page Count)' in 
1854 ; her parents were dead, and she lived 
with her uncle, Mr. Riley Palmer, a farmer. 
The second marriage was to Miss Susan P. 
Smith, a native of Vermont; she came to Du 
Page County with her parents, who now live in 
Wheaton. By the marriage there are two chil- 
dren — Agnes M. and Reno B. 

A. B. CURTIS, farmer, P. 0. Wheaton. 111., 
is a native of Lewis County. N. Y., born in the 
year 1832, and is the youngest of two children 
born to Peter B. and Filena (Look) Curtis; they 
were natives of New York and Massachusetts ; 
he was a farmer. In 1832, they moved to Ohio, 
where he worked on a farm for four years in 
Ashtabula County, and in 1836 they came to 
Illinois and located on the present place, sit 
uated two miles due west of Wheaton, purchas- 
ing the land from the Government at SI. 25 
per acre. They erected a house and began im- 
proving the land, and, excepting two years 
spent in Missouri, the parents lived here until 
their death. They had two children; the eldest, 
Benjamin S., was killed by an explosion of a 
stationary engine at Turner Junction in 1850. 
Our subject was raised at home on a farm ; he 
received a district school course of study, and 
attended a select school at Naperville ; he also 
attended one short term at Lowville Academy, 
• New York. At the age of twenty-two, he mar- 
ried Miss Rebecca Shatz, a native of Pennsyl- 
vania ; she came to Du Page County, 111., with 
her parents in the year 1850. After marriage, 
lie worked his father's farm on shares a few 
years, and then went by team to Missouri, where 
he farmed on the line of Miller and Maries 
Counties for about four years ; he then re- 
turned to Du Page County and farmed the 
home farm for a number of years, when he went 
to Manteno, Kankakee County, where he farmed 
for two years ; he then farmed the home farm 
in this county until 1870, when he went by 



52 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



team to Iowa, and in the following spring, ow- 
ing to his father's illness, he returned home, 
and has lived here since. By the marriage 
there have been four children, of whom three are 
living. Mr. Curtis became a member of the 
M, E. Church when he was eighteen years of 
age, and in 1856 was licensed as an exhorter, 
and as a minister in 1865. 

A. T. CHILDS, carpenter, Wheaton, is a na- 
tive of Windham County, Vt., born in the year 
1817. His father, Jairus, was a carpenter, and 
also owned a fine farm, which though he lived 
on he followed his trade — building nearly the 
entire village of Wilmington, in his native 
county. A. T. early began working with his 
father, and continued with him until his death, 
in 1837. A. T. and his brother, L. J., finished 
an uncompleted contract of their father's. In 
1839, A. T. and L. J. engaged in general mer- 
cantile business in Whitingham, and two years 
later they dissolved, A. T. moving to Wilming- 
ton, where he continued for twelve years, when 
he sold out and came West, and bought a farm 
in Elk Grove Township, Cook County, where 
he lived until 1856, when he sold out and came 
to Wheaton, where he has followed his trade 
since. In 1844, he married Miss Sarah X., 
daughter of Judge Roberts, of Windham 
County, Vt. They have three children — Terza, 
Jessie and Harriet. Mr. Childs has always 
been a Democrat. 

MARK DAVIS, farmer. P. O. Lisle, is a 
native of Oneida County, N. Y., born September 
19, 1827, and is the fifth child of ten children 
born to Samuel and Rheumilla (Tilden) Davis, 
who were natives of Oneida Count}', N. Y., 
and Poultney, Vt. Her father was a farmer 
and settled in Vermont with Ethan Allen, 
and moved to New York when she was young. 
She married Mr. Davis in Oneida County, and 
in 1834 they moved to Canada, where he fol- 
lowed his trade of millwright for three 3 - ears 
and in 1838 they came to Illinois, and first 
stopped in Lockport, and in August of same 



year came to the present place. He followed 
his trade of millwright, and his sons carried 
on the farm. Samuel Davis died June 3, 1861, 
and Mrs. Davis died here on the old homestead 
in 1872. Our subject made his home with his 
parents until their death. He received a lim- 
ited common school education ; he was raised 
on the farm, and after becoming of age he as- 
sisted his father at millwrighting, and also 
worked some at carpentering, and about 1857 
he took the manasement of his father's farm, 
and lias farmed the place ever since, and after 
his father's death he bought out the heirs. 
During Pearce's administration, Mr. Davis was 
Postmaster at Danby, now Prospect Park. Mr. 
Davis owns 118 acres located two and one-half 
miles north of Lisle. 

G. B. DURLAND, of Durland & Congleton, 
livery stable, is a native of Luzerne County, 
Penn., born in the year 1836 ; he was raised 
on the farm. At the age of twenty-two, he 
married Miss K. J. Cougleton, a native of Lu- 
zerne County, Penn. After the marriage, he 
rented a farm, and farmed on his own account 
until 1860, when he moved West, locating on 
a farm in Bloomingdale Township, Du Page 
County. In September, 1861, he enlisted in the 
Eighth Illinois Cavalry, and served until the 
close of the war ; re-enlisted at the end of 
about thirty months as veteran. Mr. Durland 
entered Company D as a private, and was fin- 
ally discharged as Quartermaster Sergeant of 
the company ; was with the command at the 
capture of Yorktown, Fort Magruder, Gettys- 
burg, Antietam, and all the engagements of the 
regiment. He returned home from the army, 
and in 1866 was elected Constable of Bloom- 
ingdale, an office he held eight years. In 
1871,'he was elected Collector. By the mar- 
riage there has been one child, viz., Sarah E. 

A. J. EHLE, farming and stock-raising, P. 
0. Wheaton, III., is a native of Oswego County, 
N. Y., born in the year 1833, and is the second 
in a family of eio;ut children born to John H. 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



55 



and Lucinda (Pierce) Ehle. They were natives 
of New York, married there and came West in 
1849, and settled in Du Page County, 111. They 
bought a farm near where Itaska now stands, 
and farmed there about ten years. They then 
sold their place and bought a place in Bloom- 
ingdale Township, where the}' farmed until 1861, 
when he entered the army, where he died. Our 
subject lived on the farm until the fall of 1861, 
when he enlisted in the Eighth Illinois Cav- 
alry, Company D, and served three years. He 
took part in the seven days' fight before 
Richmond, Antietam, Spottsylvania Court 
House, etc. During the latter part of his term 
of service he served at the headquarters of 
Gen. Wilson, having charge of his wagon train. 
From the army he returned home and resumed 
farming, buying a place in Bloomingdale Town- 
ship, in which township he farmed until he 
came to his present place, which consists of 
200 acres located one and one-half miles north 
of Wheaton. In the fall of 1865, he married 
Mi3S Martha .1. Knowles, a native of Du Page 
County, 111. They have two children — Freder- 
ick and Avis. He is Republican in politics, 
and a member of the Baptist Church. 

H. S. EHLE, livery, sale and feed, is a 
native of Oswego County, N. Y., born in the 
year 1840, and raised on the farm, receiving a 
common school education. His parents, John 
H. and Lucinda (Pierce) Ehle, were natives of 
New York ; married there, and in 1848 came 
West to Illinois, and settled in Du Page County; 
bought a farm in Addison Township, and some 
eight or ten years later uiot-ed to Bloomingdale 
Township, where the}- lived until the war, 
when John H. Ehle enlisted in the Eighth Illi- 
nois Cavalry as bugler, and served with the 
regiment until his death, from sickness, in 
1863. Our subject, H. S., enlisted in the One 
Hundred and Fifth Illinois Infantry, ami 
served until the close of the war. He was a 
Corporal in Company F. He was in the battle 
of Resaca (where he was wounded and was laid 



up in the hospital several months), also in the 
other engagements of the regiment. From the 
army he came to Bloomingdale, and soon after 
married Miss Mary A. Patrick, a native of New 
York. After the marriage, he located on the 
farm, where he remained until 1879, when he 
came to Wheaton and engaged in his present 
business. By the marriage there has been one 
child — Alma. Mrs. Lucinda Ehle is living in 
Bloomingdale Village. 

F. N. ENGELHARD, M. D : , is a native of 
Copenhagen, Denmark, born November 24. 
1847. He received a collegiate education, 
graduating from the Copenhagen University of 
Art in 1868, and in 1869 he graduated as 
Bachelor of Philosophy, and in 1870, as 
Bachelor of Medicine, when he entered the 
Commune Hospital, of Copenhagen, as an as- 
sistant, and remained three years, passing 
through the five divisions of the hospital serv- 
ice. He then, in March, 1873, entered the 
Royal Danish Navy as an Assistant Surgeon, 
and made a cruise on the North Sea, until the 
fall following, when he attended the lectures 
and experiments in the laboratory with the 
stud}' of the natural sciences in the university 
until 1876, when he came to America, and first 
stopped in Chicago, then to Franklin Grove ' 
and Ashton, Lee Co., 111., and in 1877 he en- 
tered the Chicago Homoeopathic College and 
graduated the year following, and in August of 
the latter year he began as assistant vvith Dr. 
Leonard Pratt, with whom he now continues. 
In 1881, he married Miss Johanne Marion Jul- 
iane Ertberg, a native of Denmark. They have 
one child — Alefi Muriel Anna Elisa. 

PROF. H. A. FISCHER, A. M., is a native 
of Du Page County, 111., born in the year 1846, 
and is the fifth in a family of ten children born 
to Henry D. and Maria E. Franzen, they were 
natives of Germany. Our subject was reared 
on his father's farm in Addison Township; he 
received a common school education, and also 
studied in private, and at the age of nineteen 

D 



56 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



entered the Wheaton College, graduating from 
same at the age of twenty-three. At the age of 
seventeen, he began teaching in the public 
schools. During the winter after graduating, 
he was appointed Principal of the preparatory 
department of the college, and after two 3'ears 
he was appointed Professor of mathematics 
and natural philosophy. In 1875, he received 
a one year's leave of absence, and attended 
the Leipzig and Heidelberg Universities, Ger- 
man}', returning in 1876, and, resuming his 
former position in the college, continues since. 
In 1875, he married Miss Julia W., daughter of 
President J. Blanchard, of Wheaton College. 
They have four children, viz., Faith A., Paul B. 
Frederick L. and Herman. While in Addison 
Township, Mr. Fischer held the office of Town- 
ship Treasurer a number of years and also the 
secretaryship of the Addison Farmers' Mutual 
Insurance Company. In December, 1881, he 
was appointed Count} - Superintendent of 
Schools for Du Page County. Republican. Is 
a member of the College Church of Christ. 
Since graduating, he has held the position of 
College Treasurer. 

ERASTUS GARY, retired, Wheaton, is a 
native of Pomfret, Windham Co., Conn. He 
was born April 5, 1806, and is the fourth of 
seven children born to William and Lucy (Per- 
rin) Gar}', who were also natives of Pomfret. 
Erastus was raised on the farm, and in addition 
to the common schools he attended the Wilbra- 
ham Academy, of Massachusetts, a short term. 
At the age of eighteen, he began teaching school 
during the winters, working on the farm in the 
summers. In 1831, he came West, and made 
a claim four miles north of Warrenville, and 
began at once to cut and split rails, put up a 
small cabin, and " bached " it until about May, 
when he was advised to leave for Chicago, ow- 
ing to the Indians. He abandoned everything, 
and footed it to Chicago, where he remained 
six weeks, during which time all were drilled 
for defense. After Gen. Scott came, Erastus 



went to Michigan and taught school, and in the 
spring of 1833 he returned to his old claim, in 
company with his brother Jade and sister 
Orinda, who joined him in 1832, and spent the 
winter with him in Michigan ; they put in a 
crop and continued improving the claim. In 
1847, Erastus moved to a farm near Wheaton, 
and since 186-1 he has lived in the village. He 
was married in 1841 to Miss Susan A. Vallette, 
a native of Massachusetts ; she died in 1874, 
in Wheaton. Of their seven children, but four 
are living. Mr. Gary has served as Justice for 
twenty-one years ; he has also been Supervisor 
and President of the village. He was Demo- 
cratic in politics until the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise, since which time he has been Re- 
publican. He has been a member of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church since he was fifteen 
years of age. 

NOAH E. GARY, a son of Erastus Gary, 
was born near Warrenville, in Du Page County, 
on the 8th day of September, 1844. In the 
spring of 1848, he removed with his parents to 
Wheaton, where he has lived ever since. He 
was educated mainly in the public schools, at- 
tending but two terms at Wheaton College. He 
followed farming until August, 1862, when he 
enlisted in Company D, One Hundred and 
Fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and three 
months later was appointed Corporal, and at 
the expiration of a year was made Sergeant. 
May 15, 1865, he was severely wounded at the 
battle of Resaca, in Georgia, having been struck 
by four bullets in that action. He was dis- 
charged in November, but could not dispense 
with crutches until the following March. In 
November, 1865, he married Ella M. Guild, of 
Downer's Grove, who died in 1870. In 1868, 
he entered the office of the Clerk of the Supe- 
rior Court, and remained there until October, 
1872. While in the Superior Court, he read 
law, and resigned his position as Chief Deputy 
to enter into the practice of the law with his 
brother, E. H. Gary. The rule of the Supreme 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



57 



Court not allowing an examination for admis- 
sion to the bar until the applicant had read law 
two years with an attorney in general practice, 
Mr. Gary was not examined and admitted until 
January, 1875. In 1873, he married Carrie H. 
Wheat, who for several years had been Princi- 
pal of the Wheaton Public Schools. For two 
years he was President of the Wheaton Town 
Council, and in 1879 he was appointed Master 
in Chancery of Du Page County, which office 
he now holds. In 1879, Judge Cody joined 
the firm of E. H. & N. E. Gary, and the firm is 
now styled Gary, Cod}- & Gary. Mr. Gary had 
three children by first marriage, two living ; 
three children by present marriage, two living. 
He is Republican, voting first for U. S. Grant. 
He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, in which he takes an active interest. 
and has been Superintendent of Sabbath school 
for some five years. 

WILLIAM L. GARY, Cashier banking 
house of G. & W., is a native of Pomfret, 
Windham County, Conn., born in the year 
1828, and is the second in a family of seven 
children born to Charles and Melinda M. (Morse) 
Gary. They were natives of Connecticut and 
Massachusetts. They married in Connecticut. 
He was the oldest son of William L. Gary, and 
followed farming. In 1837, the family came 
West to Illinois by the water route to Chicago, 
and stopped with his brother, Erastus Gary, 
who had settled near Warrenville, in Du Page 
County, and during the summer they erected a 
saw-mill two miles south of Turner Junction, 
and occupied a house which the} - erected at the 
mill, which they conducted until about 1864, 
and he lived on his farm thereafter until his 
death in 1871. Mrs. Gary died on the old 
homestead in about 1858. During his resi- 
dence in this county, Mr. Gary held the offices 
of Postmaster at Gary's Mill and Justice of 
the Peace, both of which offices he held a long 
term of years. He was also Supervisor of his 
Township, and Associate Justice. He was a 



member of the M. E. Church, and a licensed 
minister in that faith, preaching in his vicinity, 
and at one time on the regular circuit. He was 
widely known and respected by all. Our sub- 
ject lived at home until he was twenty four 
years of age. He received a limited common 
school course of study, assisting on the farm 
and at the mill. In 1852, he married Miss 
Elizabeth White, a native of the State of 
Maine, who was stopping with a married sister 
and teaching school in this county. After the 
marriage, he began the mercantile business, 
opening a general store at the mill, which he 
continued about two years, when he discontin- 
ued the store and engaged in farming. He 
was also interested in the mill. He continued 
the latter interest until the closing up of the 
mill, and the farming interest until 1874. 
when came to Wheaton and became Cashier in 
the banking firm of Miner Gary & Webster, 
which position he held through several changes 
in the firm to the present time, finally becoming 
interested as a member of the firm During 
his residence in Winfield Township, Mr. Gary 
held the offices of Town Clerk and School 
Treasurer a number of years, also Assessor and 
Collector several terms. He has been a Re- 
publican since the organization of the party. 
Ry the marriage there are two children — John 
E. and William E. His father was a licensed 
minister of the M. E. Church, and held the 
position of Associate Justice. 

W. K. GUILD, dealer in lumber, doors, sash. 
blinds, etc., Wheaton, is a native of Rrookficld. 
Washington Co., Vt., born July 4, 1819. and 
is the third child in a family of seven children 
born to Israel and Rachel (Kellogg) Guild, who 
wire natives of Vermont. He was a carpenter 
by trade. W. K. was raised on the faun, and 
received a common school education. At the 
age of sixteen he began making brooms, and 
in 1839 the family came West, taking the canal 
to Ruffalo and steamer thence to Chicago, 
thence to Wayne Township, Du Page Co., 111.. 



58 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



where they settled on a farm, and also engaged 
in manufacturing brooms, which were probably 
the first brooms made in the West. W. K. 
lived at home until about 1842, when, with his 
older brother, he made a claim on some land, 
and later, at land sale, purchased the same, and 
upon his marriage, in 1844, sold his interest in 
the claim. In 1844, he married Miss Lydia A. 
Ford, a native of New York, who came to Illi- 
nois with her parents and settled in Wayne 
Township. After marriage, he settled on a 
farm and lived there until 1868 or 1869, when 
he came to Wheaton, and has lived here since. 
About one year after coming to Wheaton, he 
engaged in the present business and continued 
since. During a short period he had a partner, 
but principally conducted the business alone. 
While in Wayne he served as Highway Com- 
missioner, and in Wheaton as a member of the 
Town Council. He has been a member of the 
Congregational Church for forty years, and a 
Deacon in same for the past thirty years. By 
his marriage he has five children, four boys and 
one daughter — Sarah L., at home ; William B., 
merchant, Wheaton ; Edwin L., lumber mer- 
chant, Dakota ; Carroll W., with his father in 
the lumber business ; Everett A., at home. 
lax. Guild's parents died in Wayne Township 
on the old homestead. Mr. Guild was Presi- 
dent of the Board of School Directors, in 1874, 
at building the schoolhouse in Wheaton. Mr. 
Guild cast his first vote in 1840 for Gen. Har- 
rison, and has been a Republican since the or- 
ganization of the party. 

T. M. HULL, Circuit Clerk, Wheaton, is a 
native of Madison Count}', N. Y.. and was born 
in the year 1 840. He received a common school 
and academic, course of study, and at the age 
of sixteen he began as a clerk in a general 
store in Dc Ruyter, Madison Co., N. Y., where 
he remained one year. He then removed to 
Montgomery County, 111., and clerked one year 
in a store in Litchfield, where his brother lived, 
and the following year returned home and at- 



tended the academy for about eight months; he 
then came to Du Page County, 111., his parents 
having come hither the year previous, and set- 
tled in York Township — Babcock's Grove, now 
Lombard — where Mr. E. A. Hull practiced his 
profession — law. T. N. engaged in clerking in 
the Grove some three years ; he then clerked 
for Potter Palmer in Chicago, and then engaged 
with his brother, G. H. Hull, in the market 
business ; the}' continued about five years. He 
then traveled in Iowa one year, when he re- 
turned to Lombard and bought the general 
store business of Reuben Link, and conducted 
the business about four } T ears. He then en- 
gaged with the Weed Sewing Machine Com- 
pany in Chicago, filling the position of assis- 
tant book-keeper, correspondent, then city agent 
and finally as traveling agent, remaining with 
the company, in all, about six years. He then, 
in 1876, became Deputy Circuit Clerk under 
his brother, Frank Hull, and in 1880 was elected 
Circuit Clerk, which office he now holds. In 
1868, he married Miss Caroline C. Whipples, of 
Oak Park, Cook Co., 111. They have two chil- 
dren. He is a Republican. 

HON. P. G. HUBBARD, Prospect Park, 111., 
is a native of Hampden County, Mass., born in 
the j'ear 1811. He was raised on his father's 
farm, and received an academic course of study. 
At the age of seventeen, he began teaching in 
the public schools, and taught during the win- 
ters thereafter for about seven years. . He was 
married, in 1834, to Miss Elizabeth Le Baron, 
a native of Plymouth County, Mass., and re- 
resided in his native State until 1855, during 
which time he served in his township as As- 
sessor and as a member of the Boards of 
Selectmen and of Examiners. During the term 
of 1847-48, he was elected by the Whigs a 
member of the State Legislature. In 1855, he 
came West to De Kalb County, 111., and the 
next year moved to Knox County, where he 
engaged in farming. In 1864, he engaged in 
the commission business in Chicago, firm, 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



59 



Hubbard & Bird. He came to Du Page 
County iu 1870, and to Prospect Park in 1873. 
By the marriage there has been three children, 
of whom but one is living — William Le Baron 
Hubbard, of Chicago. Mr. Hubbard has been 
a member of the Congregational Church since 
he was eighteen, and has officiated as Deacon 
for upward of twenty-five years of the time. 

HEZEKIAH HOLT, hardware, tin, etc., 
Wheaton, 111., is a native of Pomfret, Wind- 
ham Co., Conn., born in the 3 7 ear 1835, and is 
the second child in a family of six children, 
born to Hezekiah and Harriet Gary Holt. 
They were natives of Windham Count}', Conn. 
They married there and came West in 1837, 
coming through by wagon. It being in the 
winter time, part of the trip was made on run- 
ners put under the wagon. The}' arrived in 
the vicinity of the present village of Warren- 
ville, where Mrs. Holt's brother, Erastus Gary, 
lived, and soon after Mr. Holt bought a claim 
located about one mile southwest of Wheaton. 
The claim was occupied and improved, and 
bought of the Government when the laud came 
into market. Mr. Holt lived on his place until 
his death in 1850. He was well known among 
the old pioneers, and was a life-long member of 
the Methodist Church, and took an active in- 
terest in its affairs. He was anti-slavery in 
politics. The family continued on the old 
homestead until 1877, when they retired to 
Turner Junction, where they lived until May, 
1881, when they moved to Wheaton. Our 
subject was raised a farmer, and was edu- 
cated at Wheaton College. On becoming of 
age, he began doing business on his own 
account in partnership with his brother, con- 
ducting the farm. In 1877, Mr. Holt engaged 
in the hardware business in Turner Junction, 
in partnership with Mr. C. W. Gary, and in 
1880 he sold his interest to Mr. Gary, and soon 
after served as Government Enumerator in 
taking the census of Winfield Township, after 
which he kept books a short period in Chicago, 



and in March, 1882, he bought out the present 
business, and formed a partnership with his 
nephew, Mr. E. B. Holt. While in Turner 
Junction, Mr. Holt was elected Supervisor of 
Winfield Township, but was ineligible for the 
reason he had not lived one year in the town- 
ship. He was afterward elected Police Magis- 
trate and President of the Board of Trustees. 
The former position he held until he came to 
Wheaton. 

A. H. HIATT, physican, is a native of Indi- 
ana, born in Fayette County in 1823 ; was 
reared on the farm ; received a common school 
and academic course of study. At the age-of 
seventeen, began reading medicine, and in 1846 
graduated from the Ohio Medical College in 
Cincinnati, Ohio, and began practice at New 
Castle, Ind., where he remained until 1854 ; 
thence to Westfield, Ind.; remained there four 
years. He then came to Wheaton, and has 
practiced here since. In 1870, he opened an 
office iu Chicago, and was burned out in 1871, 
and in 1872 opened another office in Chicago, 
which he attends daily. From 1877 to 1880 
the Doctor was Professor of Surgery in the 
Bennett Medical College of Chicago, and has 
been Professor in Wheaton College of Anatomy, 
Physology and Hygiene, and gives a course of 
lectures every winter. In 1844, he married 
Miss Mary Ann J. Bowman a native of Ten- 
nessee, and moved with parents to Indiana 
when she was a child ; eleven children, eight 
living. 

LUTHER L. HIATT, druggist, is a native 
of Henry County, Ind., born in the year 1844; 
he received a common school course of study, 
and had entered the college course at the 
Wheaton College (having with his parents 
moved to Wheaton in 1859), when- in 1862 
October, he enlisted in the One Hundred and 
Fifth Illinois Infantry, Company F, and served 
until the close of the war. After the war he 
returned to Wheaton, and engaged as clerk in 
his father's drug store, and after became a part- 



60 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



ner with his father, and later became the sole 
proprietor of the business, which he continues 
at the present time. Mr. Hiatt is Republican 
in politics ; he has held the office of Town 
Clerk of Milton Township, also of the corpora- 
tion of Wheaton, holding the latter office in all 
some ten years ; he also held the office of Po- 
lice Magistrate, being elected three times. In 
July. 1882, Mr. Hiatt was nominated by the 
Republican Convention candidate for Represen- 
tative of the Fourteenth Senatorial District, 
comprising Kane and Du Page Counties. Oc- 
tober 4, 1865, he married Miss Statira E. Jewett, 
a native of New York. They have three chil- 
dren living, three sons. 

HIRAM H. HADLEY, farmer, P. 0. 
Wheaton, III., is a native of Bethel Township, 
Windsor Co., Vt., born on his father's farm in 
the year 1824. and is the eldest of three chil- 
dren born to Abial and Elmina (Chadwick) 
Iladley. They were natives of Vermont, mar- 
ried there and followed farming ; he was also a 
carpenter, and principally followed his trade. 
In 1841, the family came West by the water 
route to Chicago, thence by team to Du Page 
County, and settled in Milton Township, one 
and a half miles southwest of Wheaton, where 
he bought 160 acres of the Government at 
$1.25 per acre. They occupied the place and 
farmed there some eighteen or twenty years; 
then moved to Wheaton, where he has lived 
since. Mrs. H. died in Wheaton in the fall of 
1878. Our subject lived at home until he be- 
came of age ; he received a very limited course 
of study in the common schools of his district, 
and was brought up to farming. In 1845, he 
married Miss Charity S. Lewis, a native of 
New York. She came to Du Page County, 111., 
with her parents, who were farmers, when she 
was young. After the marriage they located 
on their present place, which adjoins the old 
homestead, and they have lived there since. 
By the marriage there have been three children, 
of whom two are living — Philip L., married 



and farming in Milton Township ; Catherine 
E., now Mrs. Beebe, of Milton Township. Mr. 
Hadley first voted in 1848, was anti-Slavery 
and Republican since organization of party. 
(In 1848 he voted for the Whig candidate.) 
He is a Wesleyan Methodist ; been a member 
since 1844. 

ELIAS' JEWELL (deceased), was a native 
of Connecticut. He was born June 22, 1791. 
While yet a child, his parents moved to New 
York, where they followed farming. He was 
married, February 26, 1815, to Harriet Howe, 
and after the marriage settled on a farm, where 
they lived until about 1825, when they went to 
Canada, and he worked at the building of the 
Welland Canal, and a few years later they 
moved to Michigan, where he farmed and con- 
ducted a brickyard near Detroit. While here, 
Mrs. Jewell returned to Canada on business, 
and died while away. In 1833, he married 
Miss Cynthia Whitney, a native of Detroit, 
Mich., born in the year 1808 ; her father, Solo- 
mon B. Whitney, was a Sergeant Major under 
Gen. Hull, at Detroit, during the war of 1812. 
In 1838, they came to Illinois, and made a 
claim to the present place, where he lived until 
his death in 1858. Mrs. Jewell is living on the 
old homestead. By the first marriage there 
were five children, of whom but one is living, 
viz., Elias. By the second marriage there were 
no children. Mr. Jewell was a soldier in the 
war of 1812. 

ELIAS JEWELL, Jr., farmer, P. 0. Naper- 
ville, is a native of Canada, born June 11, 
1827, and is the only surviving child of Elias 
Jewell, Sr., deceased. He was raised on the 
farm and received a common-school education. 
March 11. 1849, he married Miss Sabra A. 
Winchell, a native of Lake County, Ohio. She 
came to Du Page County, 111., with her parents 
in 1844 or 1845. After the marriage, he occu- 
pied an 80-acre farm his father gave him, and 
farmed on his own account, and has lived on 
the place ever since, except a short residence 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



61 



in Michigan and Chicago. By the marriage 
there have been six children, of whom five 
sons are living. In 1860, Mr. Jewell began as 
a traveling salesman for the McCormick Reaper 
Company, and the next year engaged with the 
Chicago branch of Messrs. D. M. Osborn & 
Co., manufacturers of reapers and mowers, and 
continued with them for fifteen }'ears. During 
the past seven 3'ears he has worked on short 
engagements for different companies, his health 
not permitting regular engagements. He owns 
110 acres, located one and a half miles north- 
east of* Wheaton. 

O. F. JOHNSON, lumber merchant, Chicago, 
P. O. Prospect Park, is a native of Vermont, 
born in the year 1838, son of William J. and 
Harriet (French) Johnson, who moved to Erie, 
Penn., at an early day, theuce to Ohio, thence 
to Lockport, 111., and thence to Du Page Coun- 
ty, in 1839, locating on a claim he bought in 
the southeastern part of Milton Township. A 
year or two later, they went to Chicago and 
kept the New York House, and in the spring of 
1844 came to Prospect Park. Our subject 
lived at home until he was seventeen. He then 
began as a brakeman on the North Western Rail- 
road, where he remained about seven years, 
quitting as a conductor. He then engaged as 
conductor, for two years, on the Chicago, Bur- 
lington & Quincy. He then engaged as man- 
ager of a lumber camp in Michigan, conducting 
two mills, etc., where he remained until 1863. 
He then conducted a lumber yard at Prospect 
Park for three years. He then took charge of the 
Lumber Department of (loss & Phillips Manu- 
facturing Company, of Chicago, where he re- 
mained for seven years. He then opened in 
the lumber commission business for Johnson 
& Gibbs, 248 South Water street, and has re- 
mained since. He has always kept his home 
in Prospect Park. He married in 1864 to 
Miss Emily Churchill, a native of Du Page 
County, 111. He enlisted in Company E, Eighth 
Illinois Cavalry, and remained with the com- 



mand about three months, when he was dis- 
charged, owing to ill health. He has had six 
children, five living. Republican. 

HORACE JAYNE, carpenter and agricult- 
ural implements, is a native of Wyoming Co., 
Peun., born in the year 1823, and was raised 
on the farm. His father carried on the farm, 
and was also engaged in the lumber business, 
and Horace assisted his father both on the 
farm and in his business, living at home until 
he was twenty-three. He then worked at farm- 
ing and carpentering in the neighborhood until 
1849, when he came West and located at Rock- 
ford, 111., where he worked at carpenter work 
until 1860. He then came to Du Page County, 
111., and located on a farm he bought two miles 
west of Wheaton, and farmed for fourteen 
3-ears. He then sold his farm and came to 
Wheaton, where he engaged in the hardware 
business, which he continued about three years, 
when he sold out and retired from active busi- 
ness. In 1847, he married Miss Lucy M. 
Robinson, a native of Susquehanna County, 
Penn. She died in Wheaton, 111., in 1878. 
They had seven children, five of whom are liv- 
ing. July 27, 1879, he married, in Pennsyl- 
vania, Elzina (Brown) Corey, of Susquehanna 
County, that State. After the marriage, they 
came to Wheaton, and have lived here since. 

CAPT. M. E. JONES, carpenter and house 
mover, is a native of Rutland County, Vt., 
born in the year 1830 ; was raised on the 
farm, receiving a common school education; 
his father, Ephraim Jones, was a wagon-maker, 
and the Captain early began to labor with his 
father. When seventeen years of age, he began 
peddling jewelry, and a year later went West, 
stopping in Niagara County, N. Y., and Medina 
County, Ohio, finally reaching Chicago, where 
he worked about four years, during which time 
he married .Miss Sarah fleece, who died there 
about two years after the marriage. The only 
child died when seven years of age. In 1858, 
Capt. Jones came to Du Page Page County 



63 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



and located at Danby, now Prospect Park, and 
worked at his trade. August 5, 1861, he en- 
listed in the Eighth Illinois Regiment Cavalry, 
Company E, and served until the close of the 
war. He entered his company a private, and 
was elected First Duty Sergeant; was several 
times promoted, coining home as Captain of his 
company, and now, may it be told for the benefit 
of history, that while placing his men on pickett 
at Gettysburg, about fifteen minutes of 4 A. M., 
Capt. Jones took a carbine of his Sergeant, Levi 
S. Shafer, and fifed at the advancing enemy, 
the first shot in that mighty battle. From the 
army he returned to Wheaton, and, except a 
few months, lived there until 1872, when he 
went to Colorado and engaged in the stock 
business, returning again to Wheaton in 1877, 
and has lived here since. September 1, 1864, 
in camp near Washington, D. C, he married 
Miss Elvira N. Meachara, a native of Benson, 
Rutland Co., Vt. She had come to Du Page 
Count}', 111., with her parents in 1854. 

DANIEL KELLEY, farmer, P. 0. Wheaton, 
is a native of Rutland Co., Vt., born in the year 
1818. On becoming seventeen, he began teach- 
ing public school in the winter, teaching in all 
three terms. He also was was a shepherd, 
having charge of his father's flock; when he was 
twenty-six years of age, he came West by the 
water route, and purchased and occupied his 
present place, where he has lived ever since, 
located two miles due north of Wheaton. He 
soon began the sheep business in the West, and 
early placed some fine merinos on his place, 
and has carried on the business on a large scale 
ever since, having as high as 2,600 head at one 
time. In 1846, he married Miss Mary E. Huls, a 
native of New York. She came to St. Charles, 
Ills., with her parents. She had eleven chil- 
dren, nine of whom are living. He first voted 
for Harrison, and has been Republican since 
the organization of the party. He has been a 
member of the Baptist Church for the past thirty 
years. On coming to Du Page County, he had 



$602, and has owned over 1,400 acres of land 
here, but has lately sold portions to his chil- 
dren and others. He was President of the 
Wool Growers' Association of the State of Illi- 
nois, by virtue of which office he also became 
Delegate to the National Convention. He was 
the first President of the Northern Illinois 
Wool Growers' Association and is now Vice 
President of the State Association. 

A. D. KELLEY, Sutcliflfe & Kelley, grain, 
lumber and agricultural implement deal- 
ers, Wheaton, is a native of Milton Town- 
ship, Du Page Co., 111., and was born June 30, 
1 849 ; was raised on his father's farm, and re- 
ceived a common school education, living at 
home until the fall of 1872, when he married 
Miss Callie A. Smith, a native of Walworth 
County, Wis. After the marriage, they settled 
on a farm that he bought in Kane County one 
mile west of St. Charles, where they lived for 
seven years. He then sold out his farm and 
moved to Wheaton. when he engaged in his 
present business, and has conducted ever since. 
By the marriage there have been three children 
born, of whom one is living — Raymond Albert. 

JUDSON A. KELLEY, farmer, P. O. Whea- 
ton, 111., is a native of Milton Township, Du 
Page Co., and was born on his father's farm in 
the year 1858, and in addition to a common 
school course, attended Wheaton College for a 
year or two. February 15, 1882, he married 
Miss Lillian A. Taylor, a native of Wisconsin. 
After the marriage, they located on the present 
place, which he bought of Mr. J. L. Bennett, 
and consists of fifteen acres, located one and 
three-fourth miles north of Wheaton. Mr. 
Kelley is Republican in politics. 

F. G. KIMBALL, farming, P. O. Wheaton, 
is a native of Washington County, Vt., born 
Sept. 9, 1825, fifth child in a family of eleven ' 
children born to the Rev. William Kimball, 
who married Miss Lovisa Lathrop. They were 
natives of Vermont ; married there, and came 
West in 1836, coming by the water route, and 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



63 



bought a claim in what is now Wayne Town- 
ship, Du Page Co., 111., where the}- farmed for 
about three years, when the family moved to 
Aurora, where Mr. Kimball preached in Kane 
and Du Page Counties for some thirty years, 
when he retired from the active ministry, hav- 
ing returned to Wheaton, Du Page County, 
where he died in 1869. Mrs. Kimball died two 
years previous, in Wheaton. Our subject lived 
at home until he was twenty years of age ; he 
received in all only about nine months' study in 
the district schools. He followed farming until 
about 1850, when he engaged as a clerk in the 
general merchandise business at Turner Junc- 
tion, continuing there about ten years. He 
then traveled for some five years, and in 1865, 
in company with Mr. M. Smith, engaged in 
the mercantile business in Wheaton, they con- 
tinuing in business some seven years, when 
thej- dissolved, and Mr. Kimball engaged in 
farming, and a few years later he again en- 
gaged in mercantile business, but owing to ill- 
health, he soon gave up his business and re- 
turned to farming, which he has coutinued 
since, locating on his present place, which con- 
sists of thirty acres, located one mile southwest 
from Wheaton. In 1866, he married Miss Mary 
K. Barnes, a native of Michigan, and living at 
Mendota, 111., at time of her marriage. By the 
marriage there have been three children, two 
of whom are living, viz., Frank Grant Kimball, 
Ida May Kimball. Mr. Kimball has held the 
office of Collector and Boad Commissioner in 
Winfield Township, and Supervisor in Milton 
Township. He first voted for John P. Hale ; 
was anti-slavery and Kepublican since the or- 
ganization of party. He has been a member 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church for about 
twelve years. 

L. E. LANDON, retired farmer, is a native 
of Whitestown, Oneida Co., N. Y., born No- 
vember 19, 1809, second child of a family of 
five children born to Joseph and Sarah Wood 
Landon. They were natives of Connecticut and 



New York; he moved to Whitestown, N. Y., at 
an early day, and there married Miss Wood, 
daughter of Deacon Wood of the Congrega- 
tional Church of that place. Joseph Landon, 
at the time of L. E.'s birth, was engaged in a 
saw-mill, and Salter moved to Wales' Paper- 
mill and bought rags and sold paper for same, 
and thence to a farm; and, about the year 1820, 
he moved to Oswego Village (now city), he 
carryiug the mail from Utica to Oswego, his 
being the first four-horse stage ever driven 
through that route; his wife died in Oswego in 
March. 1825; he married again to Mrs. Huldah, 
widow of Samuel Famham, by whom he has 
one child, a son; he moved to Hannibal, and 
thence to Marcellus, where his second wife died ; 
he married again, and live' 1 in that vicinity 
until his death. Our subject lived at home 
until he was about twenty-two or twenty-three 
years of age; he received a common school 
education. In 1825, he married Miss Hul- 
dah M. Famham, in Oswego, N. Y.; she 
was a native of Canada, where her parents re- 
sided on a farm forty-five miles northeast of 
Kingston, she being on a visit to her aunt's, at 
Oswego, N. Y., at the time of her marriage, after 
which they lived on a farm for about a year 
and a half, and then went to Upper Canada, 
where they lived also about a year and a half. 
In January, 1838, they drove by sleigh to Mar- 
cellus, N. Y.j and, gathering some effects, they 
started on February 22d of that year for Illi- 
nois, sleighingto Cleveland and thence by wheels 
to Addison Township, Du Page County, where 
his brother lived, and soon after arriving he 
bought a claim located in Section 12, Bloom- 
ingdale Township, and occupied the same, where 
he lived until about 1857 or 1858; he then 
moved to Section 14, where he lived until the 
fall of 1867, when he moved to Wheaton, and 
has lived here since. By the marriage there 
were five children, four of whom are living, 
three daughters and one son; all married. The 
son, A. S., merchant in Wheaton; Laura A. 



64 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



Gates, in Bloomingdale; Hattie M. Beach, of 
St. Joe, Mo.; Sarah E. Mann, of Geneva, 111. 

W. H. LUTHER, station agent, Northwest- 
ern Railroad and dealer in grain, coal and feed, 
of the firm of Luther & Newton, Prospect 
Park, is a native of Springfield, Mass., and was 
horn in the year 184G. In 1854, the family 
came West to Rockford, 111., where they now 
reside. W. H. Luther, Sr., was a manufacturer 
of cotton and woolen goods in the East, and 
after coming West, followed farming. Our sub- 
ject received a common school education. In 
18(34, he enlisted in the One Hundred and 
Forty -seventh Illinois Regiment Infantry, Com- 
pany A, and served one year. After his re- 
turn from the army, he engaged in farming, 
which he continued about five years. He then 
became station agent at Winnebago, 111., and 
in 1874 he became agent here at Prospect Park. 
In 1877, in company with E. C. Marks, en- 
gaged in the coal and feed business, and three 
years later, Mr. Marks sold his interest in the 
business to Mr. W. C. Newton. Mr. Luther 
married Miss F. A. Copeland, daughter of Dr. 
Copeland, of Winnebago. By the marriage 
there are two children, viz., Flora L. and Paul 
G. Republican in politics. Clerk of the Board 
of Trustees and the School Board of Prospect 
Park. 

S. W. MOFFATT, retired farmer, is a native 
of Orange County, N. Y.. born March 1, 1818. 
He was raised on a farm until he was about 
sixteen 3'ears of age. He received a common 
and select school course of study. On becom- 
ing sixteen, he began teaching, and continued 
to teach for about five years. He then came 
West to Aurora, 111., where he taught school 
and assisted his brother-in-law on the farm 
until the spring of 1842, when he came to Du 
Page County and stopped with his brother-in- 
law, who had moved to Wayne Township ; and, 
in the winter following, he taught school near 
where the town of Bartlett now stands. The 
schoolhouse was an old pioneer one, of logs — 



stick chimney, puncheon floor, etc., etc. — and the 
teacher received two steers, valued at $36, for 
three mouths' services. He continued his home 
with his brother-in-law, teaching winters and 
assisting on the farm, about one year, when he 
went East to Orange County, N. Y., where he 
taught his former school ; and in the spring of 
1844 he married Miss Harriet Elizabeth Sayer, 
a native of Orange County, N. Y. The same 
spring, they came to Wayne Township, Du Page 
Co., 111., where they purchased a farm and 
lived on the same until about 1863. He then 
rented his place and moved to Elgin, returning 
to his farm the year following ; and about one 
year later he sold his farm and moved to 
Wheaton, where he has lived since. While in 
Wayne Township, he served two terms each in 
the offices of Town Clerk and Supervisor ; 
while in Wheaton he has been in the Council 
for a number of 3'ears, and now serving as 
President of the Board for the fifth term. In 
former years he was a Whig, and Republican 
since the organization of the party. Is a mem- 
ber of the Congregational Church since his 
coming to the county. By the marriage there 
were five children, two of whom are living — 
William S., shorthand correspondent. Chicago, 
and Harriet E., at home. 

HON. F. H. MATHER, farmer, is a native 
of Benson, Rutland Co., Vt, born in the year 
1819. His father, Demas, was a farmer, and 
also kept hotel. He and his wife, Miss Clarissa 
C. Ingraham, were natives of Connecticut. They 
married there and moved to Vermont, where 
they lived until their death. Our subject was 
raised on the farm ; received a common-school 
education. In 1842, he married Miss Rhode E. 
Meacham, a native of his native town. After 
marriage, they came West, by line boat to Buf- 
falo, thence on the old Illinois steamer to Chi- 
cago, thence to Milton Township, Du Page Co., 
111., where Mrs. Mather had a brother living. 
They bought a farm and began farming, which 
business he followed until about 1860, when he 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



65 



tame to Wheaton, where he has since lived. 
While on the farm, he also engaged in the stock 
and wool business, buying, and shipping to Chi- 
cago and New York, and has carried on his 
farms and conducted the wool and stock busi- 
ness ever since. In 18(39, he went to Colorado 
and bought wool, and in 1872 the family moved 
there, and they carried on a stock ranch, re- 
maining on the same for thirteen months, when 
they returned to Wheaton. Mr. Mather has 
been Supervisor of Milton Township for three 
years ; has also served on the Town Council. 
In the fall of 1860, he was elected, on the Re- 
publican ticket, a member of the State Legis- 
lature, and served two years, during which time 
he actively engaged himself to have passed a 
bill he presented for the removal of the county 
seat from Naperville to Wheaton. The bill 
passed the House, but was defeated in the Sen- 
ate, and the war coming on, no further action 
was taken until 1866, when the bill passed. By 
the marriage there has been one child — Minnie, 
now Mrs. Sanders. Mr. Mather was an Old-Line 
Whig, and became Republican upon the organ- 
ization of the party ; is a member of the Con- 
gregational Church. 

J. R.McCHESNEY, merchant, of J. R. McC. 
& Co., Prospect Park, 111., is a native of New- 
ark, N. J., born June 18, 1828. His parents, 
Rev. James and Matilda (Davis) McChesney, 
were natives of Ireland and New York; he is a 
Congregational minister. In 1846, the}' moved 
to Chicago, and one year later pre-empted 160 
acres in Schaumberg Township, Cook Co., 111. 
where they lived until about 1854, when they 
sold the land and moved to Prospect Park. 
Our subject lived with his parents until about 
1853, when, about fourteen years of age, he be- 
gan work in an ornamental iron works, and 
worked there about four years. In 1854, he 
married, at Hanover, Cook County, Miss Eliza- 
beth Leatherman, a native of Indiana; they 
have four children, two of whom are living. 
After the marriage, he farmed a few years. In 



1862, he formed a partnership and engaged in 
the general store business in Danby, now Pros- 
pect Park. In 1864, he enlisted in the One 
Hundred and Forty-first Illinois Volunteer In- 
fantry Regiment, Company H, and served about 
five months; he entered as a private and re- 
turned as Second Lieutenant of his company; 
he then sold out his store business and engaged 
in buying and shipping grain, which he con- 
tinued for several years; he then moved to El- 
gin and conducted the grain business there in 
company with Mr. George Sawin for three years, 
then returned to Prospect Park and engaged in 
the lumber business for Mr. Huff, and about 
1872 he engaged in his present business, and 
for a term served as Postmaster. August 1, 
1882, Mr. McC. was elected President of the 
Village of Prospect Park, it being the first elec- 
tion under corporation. 

PETER NORTHROP, retired, is a native of 
Cayuga County, N. Y., born in the year 1818. 
At the age of sixteen he engaged as a clerk in 
a general store in Oswego County, N. Y., and 
followed clerking, principally, until 1836. when 
he took a' trip West prospecting, visiting Illinois, 
Wisconsin. Michigan, etc. He returned East, 
and in 1837 engaged in business for himself at 
Jordan, in Onondaga County, N. Y., where he 
remained until 1841, when he came West and 
settled on a farm which he bought in Addison 
Township, where he remained four years, and 
where he was a Justice of the Peace. He then 
sold his farm and engaged in merchandising in 
Addison Village ; continued until 1852, when 
he was elected Circuit Clerk and went to Na- 
perville (then the county seat), and he lived 
there four years. He then came to Wheaton, 
and built a steam and grist mill which he con- 
ducted until 1850, when it was destroyed by 
fire. He then went to Chicago and engaged in 
the grain business two years, thence to his laud 
in Addison Township, where he remained till 
1865 ; then he came to Wheaton, and in com- 
pany with Mr. H. B. Hills engaged in mercan- 



66 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



tile business. They continued until 1875, when 
he went to a farm he had at Turner Junction, 
where he remained until October, 1881, when 
he came to Wheaton and has lived here since. 
He married Miss Mariell Kinney, a native of 
Oswego County, N. Y. She came to Du Page 
County with her parents. She died in 1862. 
His present wife was Miss S. B. Eastman, a 
native of Illinois. They had seven children — 
six living. Was. in an early day, a Democrat, 
but has been a Republican since the organiza- 
tion of that party. Mr. Northrop was elected 
one of the Associate Justices, and, on forma- 
tion of the Board of Supervisors, he was elected 
Supervisor of his township. 

FRANCIS OTT, farmer,' P. 0. Wheaton, 
111., was born in Germany in the year 1816, and 
was raised on a farm. At the age of sixteen, 
he apprenticed to shoemaking, and, in 1837, he 
came to the United States of America, and 
lived two years in the State of New York, 
working at his trade. He then came West by 
the water route to Chicago. He then came out 
in the country to work, and worked in this part 
of the State on the farm and canal, or cutting- 
wood until 1841. He then went to Naperville, 
where he worked at his trade. He also went to 
school a few months. He then went to live 
with his brother, who was farming in Milton 
Township, and soon after he took up a claim 
and improved it, and later he sold his place 
and bought the present, which contains 250 
acres, located one and a quarter miles east of 
Wheaton. In 1847, he married Miss Anna M. 
Werner, a native of Germany. She came to 
the United States of America with her parents 
when she was young ; she died in September, 
1877. They had seven children, six of whom 
are living. Mr. Ott has held the office of 
Road Commissioner and Assessor of his 
Township. Also the school office of Director. 
He has been a Democrat in politics, but of 
late is rather independent, going for the best 
men. 



REV. FATHER DE LA PORTE was born 
in Burgsteinfurt, Province of Westphalia, Prus- 
sia, May 11, 1841. His father, Francis M. de 
la Porte was a Frenchman, though born in 
Santa Cruz, W. I., in 1797, and when five 
years of age moved to Europe, locating in 
Germany, where he afterward became the 
Inspector of Forests, a position he held for 
fifty-five years. Our subject was raised in his 
native village until he was seventeen years of 
age, when he went to Minister and prepared for 
the ministry, attending the college there, from 
which lie graduated in August, 1862. He then 
studied philosophy during a short term, and 
returning home made his preparations to come 
to America, arriving in Chicago, 111., in October, 
1863, where he completed his course of study 
in the St. Mary's Seminaiy of the Lake, and 
was ordained to the priesthood April 7, 1866, 
by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Duggan, and was 
assigned Professor of Latin in the St. Mary's 
Seminary. A few months later, he was ap- 
pointed pastor of the St. Peter's Church at 
Naperville, 111. The large church there was 
only partly finished, and had quite a heavy 
debt, but by his energy Father de la Porte dis- 
charged the debt, built a parsonage and finished 
the church in a most elegant manner, remain- 
ing in Naperville until in November, 1878, 
when, owing to his health, which was much 
impaired by reason of his labors in behalf of 
his church, he left Naperville, where he had 
made many warm friends, and went to Wiscon- 
sin and became a professor in the Normal 
School in St. Francis, and one year later he 
removed to Chicago, where he became Assistant 
Priest of St. Anthony's Church, rh which posi- 
tion he continued for two years, and, in April, 
was appointed pastor of the St. Michael's 
Church of Wheaton. 

J. S. PEIRONNET, retired, P. 0. Wheaton, 
111., is a native of Binghamton, N. Y., born in 
the 3'ear 1841. His parents were J. S. and 
Mary J. (Lance) Peironnet. He was a mer- 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



67 



chant, and, in 1854, came to Peru, 111., where 
he bought and improved lands. In 1868, he 
returned East, locating at Waverly, N. Y., 
where he died. Our subject, at the age of 
nineteen, engaged in the lumber business at 
Peru, 111., and, on becoming of age, he, in com- 
pany with his brother, William F. Peironnet, 
in the commission business in Chicago, and 
they successfully conducted the business for 
eighteen years, maintaining the excellent posi- 
tion of the house as one of the strong con- 
cerns of the board throughout the entire time. 
The magnitude of the business was enormous 
during the navigation season; they received as 
high as 1.01)0,000 bushels of grain per month. 
For a few years during the business of the 
firm, they owned a large flour mill at Minneap- 
olis, having a capacity of 500 barrels per day. 
During the ownership of this mill, Mr. Peironnet 
was one of the organizers of the Minneapolis 
Millers' Association, now the largest grain asso- 
ciation in the world. He became the Chicago 
agent, and contracted the freights from Chicago 
East. During the years 1868-69-70-71, they 
received fully one-third of the entire receipts 
of the city, and contracted freights on as high 
as 8,000 barrels per day. Aside from these 
active interests, Mr. Peironnet has large special 
interests in various commercial enterprises. 
In 1877, owing to his health, he sought a 
home in the country, and located at Wheaton. 
Being pleased with the change, he purchased 
property and permanently made it his home. 
In January, 1882, he retired entirely from 
the business he was engaged in for the past 
eighteen years. In 1873, he married Miss 
Fannie, daughter of William Baker, editor and 
proprietor of the Chicago Journal of Com 
mi ret . 

LEONARD PRATT, M. D., is a native of 
Bradford County, Penn., born in the year 
1819. and is second in a family of nine 
children born to Russell and Olive (Towner) 
Pratt. He was a farmer and cabinet-maker. 



which business he conducted in addition to 
farming. They died in Towanda, the county 
seat of Bradford County. Our subject lived 
at home on the farm until he was fifteen 
years of age; he received a common school 
course of study, also attended the La Fay- 
ette College at Easton about one year; after 
his attendance at the college, he taught public 
school one term — for the most part, he worked 
to earn the means to educate himself— alternat- 
ing the work with the schooling. In 1841, he 
began reading medicine at Le Raysville, Brad- 
ford Co., Penn., and later attended lectures at 
the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, 
and then began practice with his preceptor, and 
later by himself, in Towanda, and in 1851 he 
again attended the Jefferson College and grad- 
uated from the same, and two 3'ears later, he 
came to Illinois and located near Mount Carroll, 
Ills., where he bought a farm and opened an 
office in Mount Carroll, where he practiced for 
twelve years, when he came to Wheaton and 
has practiced here since. In 1869, the Doctor 
began lecturing in the Hahnemann Medical 
College, and continued lectures seven years, 
and since then he has been connected Emeritus 
Professor of the Chicago Homoeopathic Col- 
lege, lecturing occasionally, and during the past 
seven years the Doctor has attended his office 
in Chicago two days each week. He is a mem- 
ber of the American Institute of Homoeopathy, 
the Western Academy of Medicine, Illinois 
State Medical Society and the Academy of 
Medicine, Chicago. In 1843, he married Miss 
Betsy, daughter of Dr. L. C. Belding, of Brad- 
ford County, Penn. They had four children, 
two living, one son and a daughter. 

HIRAM B. PATRICK, farmer and dealer 
in stock. P. O. Wheaton. Came to county in 
1845. 

A. G. RANSOM, farming, P. 0. Wheaton, 
is a native of Du Page County, 111., born in the 
year 1845, and is the only child of A. S. and 
Melissa (Bingham) Ransom, who were natives 



68 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



of New York and Connecticut ; they married in 
Ohio He came to Illinois when a single man 
about the year 1840, and a few years later went 
to Ohio, where he was married, and then came 
to Illinois again and occupied the claim where 
he now lives. He was a soldier in a dragoon 
company, under Maj. De Acker, in the war of 
1812. Our subject was raised a farmer, and 
received a common school education. At the 
age of sixteen he began managing the home 
farm. In 1868, he married Miss Christina 
Steven, a native of Du Page County, 111., and 
daughter of Alex. Steven. She died August 
25, 1871. June 20, 1877. he married Miss Liz- 
zie A. Moore, a native of Canada. She came 
to Du Page County, 111., with her parents. By 
the marriage there are two children — Aning 
R. and Cornelia M. He is a Republican in 
politics ; has served as Highway Commissioner 
for six years. In 1864, Mr. Ranson began the 
business of threshing and has conducted a 
thresher most of the time since. He owns 120 
acres located three miles northwest of Wheaton. 
J. RUSSELL SMITH, editor and proprietor 
Wheaton fflinoian and Turner Junction News, 
Wheaton, is a native of Bluff Dale, Greene Co., 
111. He was born in the year 1838, and is the 
second of nine children born to Charles K. and 
Lucretia M. (Gray) Smith, who were natives of 
Woodstock, Vt.; they married there, and in 
the year 1830 came West. He was a publish- 
er in his native State, and upon coming to Illi- 
nois published the " Bach Woodsman " a paper 
owned and edited by Mr. John Russell. He 
also published the Mississippian at Rock Island. 
and later became editor and proprietor of the 
Monmouth Atlas, of Monmouth, 111., and after 
a connection of some eleven years with the pa- 
per he retired to the farm, and later was en- 
gaged in the mercantile business at Monmouth, 
and in 1S78 he moved to California, and is now 
located at San Diego, with his wife and daugh- 
ter. Our subject lived with his parents until 
he became of age, and in addition to the com- 



mon schools he attended a short term at the 
Monmouth College. He early became initiated 
in the way of printing, beginning in his father's 
office when nine years of age, and worked un- 
til his father sold out and retired to the farm ; 
he then assisted at farming until he became 
of age, when he again entered a printing office 
and worked at his trade. During 1861, he be- 
came Deputy Postmaster of Monmouth, and 
next engaged in the mercantile business, con- 
ducting a general store for several years. He 
then moved to California, Mo., where he pub- 
lished the " Loyal Missourian," and a few years 
later he went to St. Louis, and worked at his 
trade for a year or two. He then worked at 
Bellville, 111., a few years, when, in 1870, he 
came to Wheaton, and bought the Wheaton llli- 
noian, which he has published since. In 1871, 
he established the Turner Junction News, 
which he has published since. In 1865, he 
married Miss Mary E. Clark, a native of New 
York. She came to Warren Count}', 111., with 
her parents, when she was young. By this 
marriage there have been five children, of whom 
four are living. Mr. Smith first voted for Lin- 
coln, and has been a member of the Repub- 
lican party since. 

W. G. SMITH, attorney, is a native of 
Rutland County, Vt., born in the year 1816, 
September 6. He was raised on the farm, and 
received a common-school education. At the 
age of seventeen, he engaged as a clerk in a 
general merchandise store, and clerked nearly 
one year. He then sold goods by wagon for a 
season. At about the age of eighteen, he 
began reading law with Judge William U. Kit- 
ridge, and, after a year, owing to his sight, he 
began clerking again, reading at leisure. In 
1845, he engaged in the grocery business for 
himself at Whitehall, N. Y.; continued about 
two or three years. He then came West and 
located in Du Page County, 111., on a farm 
near Warrenville, where he farmed one year. 
He then returned East, to Whitehall, where he 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



remained four years — two as Captain of a 
steam towboat. and two as Constable and Dep- 
uty Sheriff — then returned to Illinois, and 
located near Warrenville, and farmed there 
three years, when he moved to Huntley. Mc- 
Henry County, and carried on a farm. While 
here, he served as Coroner and Associate 
Justice. After five years' residence, he re- 
turned to Warrenville aud engaged in the fire 
insurance business, and, in 1864, he came to 
Wheaton. During his residence in Illinois, he 
practiced more or less before Justices, and, in 
1867, he was admitted a member of the bar, 
and has practiced here since. In 1870, he was 
elected State's Attorney, and held the office for 
four years. In 1844, he married Miss Catha- 
rine Miller, a native of New York. She died in 
1845. In 1847, he married Miss Mary E. 
Manville, a native of New York. By the mar- 
riage there have been three children, two of 
whom are living. 

JOHN SMITH, farmer, P. 0. Prospect Park, 
is a native of Yorkshire, England, bom 
January 29, 1822. and. when about six or 
seven years of age. was put into a cotton fac- 
tory, receiving 1 shilling per week, and he re- 
mained there until he was about eighteen years 
of age. He then took a position in a dye 
wool mill, and worked there until he came to 
the United States, in 1844, and located in 
Wayne County. Mich., where he worked at 
clearing an eighty-acre piece of land his uncle, 
James Smith, who came over with him, left 
him at his death. In 1856, he came to Illinois 
and settled in De Witt County, where he and 
his brother Joseph took up a half-section of 
Illinois Central Railroad land, and farmed it 
for a number of years, when they sold out, 
and. in 1865, came to Du Page County and 
bought 190 acres in the vicinity of Prospect 
Park, where they farmed until 1876, when 
John Smith bought his brother Joseph's inter- 
est, the latter going to Maryland. Mr. Smith 
lived on the farm until February, 1882, when 



he moved where he now lives, in Prospect 
Park. He married Miss Ann Smith, a native 
of Yorkshire, England, who came to the Unit- 
ed States in 1844. By the marriage, six chil- 
dren were born, of whom four are living — 
Mary J., now Mrs. Dodge, of Prospect Park ; 
Joseph, farmer in Crawford County, Iowa ; 
Mattie, now Mrs. McChesney, of Prospect 
Park ; Charles, at home. Mr. Smith first vot- 
ed for Gen. Scott, and has since voted for Fre- 
mont, Lincoln, Grant, Greeley, Tilden and 
Hancock. 

ALEXANDER SPROUT, forming, P. 0. 
Wheaton, is a native of Guernsey County, Ohio, 
born in the year 1822. He was raised on the 
farm, and received a common-school education, 
such as obtained in the old log schoolhouses ; 
he also taught school a number of terms during 
the winters. His mother died when he was 
about six years of age, and when he became 
twelve his father moved to Sandusky, and about 
one year later he began working by the month, 
and continued working out some ten years. In 
1841, he married Miss Anna Fry, a native of 
Stark County. Ohio, and resident of Sandusky. 
About a year later they came West to Du Page 
County, 111., renting the old Jewell place in 
Milton Township the first season, and the next 
year bought forty acres where he now resides, 
gradually adding to his place until increased to 
180 acres, located about three miles northwest 
<>!' Wheaton. By the marriage there have been 
ten children, of whom seven are living. He is 
a Republican. 

WILLIAM F. SPROUT, farming, P. O. 
Wheaton, is a native of Milton Township, Du 
Page County ; born on his father's farm in 
1846. and lived at home until 1869, and has al- 
ways followed forming. In 1864, he enlisted 
in the One Hundred and Forty-first Illinois In- 
fantry, Company H, and served about live 
months. He returned home from the army, and 
in 1869, he married Miss Francis E. Jayne, a 
daughter of Mr. Horace Jayne, of Wheaton. 



70 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



She was born in Susquehanna County, Penn., 
and came to Illinois with her parents when 
young. After the marriage, he located on a 
small farm in Winfleld Township, and farmed 
there about two years. He then rented in this 
neighborhood a few years, then bought his 
present place, which consists of ninety acres, 
located three miles northwest of Wheaton. By 
the marriage there have been five children, viz., 
Jessie M., Ernest W., Grace L., Alexander C., 
Melvin R. Mr. Sprout is Republican, though 
he has not taken any active part in politics. 

PHILO W. STACY, farmer, P. O. Prospect 
Park, 111., is a native of Cattaraugus County, N. 
Y., born January 13, 1833, and is the youngest 
and onty surviving child of Moses and Joan 
(Kimball) Stacy. He was born in Massachu- 
setts in the year 1795, and was raised a farmer. 
In 1824, he married Miss Joan Kimball, a na- 
tive of Connecticut, born in the year 1804. 
Her father was a farmer, and moved to Massa- 
chusetts in 1816. After the marriage, they 
moved to Vermont, where they farmed about 
five years, when they moved to Cattaraugus 
County, N. Y., and in 1835 they came to Illi- 
nois, intending to locate at Hennepin ; but not 
liking that county, they located here in Du 
Page County. The}' were on the main road to 
Chicago, and the circumstances of the times 
started them into a sort of hotel business. In- 
deed, for a few years, a sign was extended. Mr. 
Stacy continued on the place until his death, 
June 15, 1870. Mrs. Stacy has lived on the 
old homestead ever since. Philo W. lived at 
home until he was twenty-three years of age. 
He attended the common schools and an acad- 
emy. On becoming twenty-three, he bought a 
place adjoining the old homestead, and lived on 
it until his father's death ; since which time he 
has lived in the old home. February 22, 1853, 
he married Miss Betsy D. Taylor, a native of 
New York. Of their three children, two are 
living, viz. : Carrie A. and Fannie M. Mr. 
Stacy has held the office of Collector, Road 



Commissioner and Constable. He is a Repub- 
lican in politics and a member of the Baptist 
Church for thirty years. 

JOHN SUTCLIFFE, of Sutcliffe & Kelley, 
grain, lumber and agricultural implements, is 
a native of Huntingdonshire, Eng.; he was 
born in the j'ear 1830; he received a common 
school education; at the age of thirteen, he ap- 
prenticed to the milling trade in Bythorn, serv- 
ing seven years, after which he worked one year 
as a journeyman at Thrapstone, and in 1852 he 
came to the United States and stopped in 
Cleveland, Ohio, and vicinity about twenty 
months, following his trade; he then returned to 
England and visited about six months, when he 
again came to the United States and located in 
Chicago, where he followed his trade, being in 
charge of the Hydraulic City Mills, which, at 
that time, also supplied the city with water, re- 
maining until the mill was torn down, about 
1854; he then came to Du Page County and 
started a mill for Chicago parties in the town 
of Addison, which he conducted some two} T ears; 
he then came to Wheaton and took charge of 
the mill, and after about one j'ear he rented the 
mill and conducted it on his own account, con- 
tinuing until the destruction of the mill by fire, 
in which Mr. Sutcliffe lost all his property; he 
then opened a small flour and feed store, occu- 
pying a portion of what is now his present 
warehouse, which he continued a few years; he 
then moved to Kenosha, Wis., where he bought 
a farm and followed farming about three years; 
he then sold out and returned to Wheaton and 
formed a partnership in the grain, lumber and 
coal business, and, through several changes in 
the firm, Mr. Sutcliffe has continued in the busi- 
ness to this day. Mr. S. is Republican. He 
married Miss Martha M. Muzzey, a native of 
Pennsylvania, and came to Du Page County 
with her parents, who settled in Bloomingdale 
Township; seven children, five living. 

ALVIN SEAMANS, retired, P. O. Wheaton, 
111., is a native of Ashfort, Windham Co., 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



73 



Conn., born in the year 1817, and was raised 
on a farm. He lived at home until he was past 
eighteen, when he went to Pomfret, where he 
lived over a year, working by the month on the 
farm, and in December, 1836, he started for Illi- 
nois, coming through by team to Warrenville, 
where he hired to the Messrs. Gary as a farm 
hand; after some five months, for which he drew 
$11 per month, he removed to Deacon Clark's, 
who paid him $25 per month, and continued 
working transiently until December following, 
when he went to the Benjamin settlement and 
took care of his cousin, Mr. Samuel Gary, 
who was sick, and in April, 1839, he made a 
claim in Wayne Township and occupied the 
same, but in July following he sold out and 
made a claim about half a mile west of where 
Wheaton now stands, and lived there until 1871, 
when he retired to his present place. In 
April, 1839, he married Miss Almira Munyan, a 
native of Thompson, Windham Co., Conn. She 
came to this county in 1838, and died January 
7, 1870, leaving eight children. May 15, 1870, 
he married Betsy M. Barber, a native of Ben- 
son, Vt. Mr. Seamans has held the office of 
School Director for some seven years; he has 
also served as Road Commissioner; he is Re- 
publican in his politics, and one of the first in 
Ms precinct to vote anti-slavery; he was brought 
up a Baptist, but has for the past twenty years 
been a member of the Conaresrational Church 
and has acted as Deacon for the past seventeen 
years. Soon after the laying-out of Wheaton, 
Mr. Seamans was made the Superintendent of 
the Sabbath School, which was the first formed 
in Wheaton. 

ALEXANDER STEVEN, farmer, Wheaton, 
111. Is a native of Scotland, born in the year 
1821, and is the third of nine children born to 
James and Janet (McGown) Steven, who were 
natives of Scotland, and married there. He 
was a farmer, and about 1831 the family came 
to Canada, where they engaged in farming. 
Mrs. Steven died in Canada, and Mr. Steven 



lives there to this day, being now in his ninety- 
fourth year. Alexander lived at home until he 
was twenty -two years of age. He received a 
common school education. In 1 843, he came to 
the United States and settled in Du Page 
County, working by the month for one year, 
and then settled on his present place, which he 
pre-empted, and has lived here ever since. In 
1845, he married Miss Elizabeth Fry, a native 
of Pennsylvania, and came to Du Page County, 
111., with her parents. She died September 10, 

1876. They had ten children, of whom seven 
are living. September 26, 1876, he married 
Mrs. Green, formerly Miss Fidelia Drake, a 
native of St. Lawrence County, N. Y., and 
came to Du Page County, 111., in May, 1866. 
By the present marriage there are two children. 
Mr. S. is a Republican ; was strong anti-slavery. 
Has 240 acres of land located on Sections 4 
and 6, he residing on the latter, distanced three 
miles northwest of Wheaton. 

S. P. SEDGWICK, M. D., is a native of 
Westmoreland, Oneida County, N. Y., born 
February 7, 1822. He received a common 
school course of study, and also attended 
Cazenovia Seminary about one year. At the 
age of eighteen, he began reading medicine 
under his father, Dr. Parker Sedgwick, and in 
February, 1843, he graduated from the Medical 
Department of the Geneva College, New York, 
and then began practice in his native town, 
and the following year came to Bloomingdale 
Township, Du Page County, 111., where his 
parents had settled the year previous. He and 
his father practiced together some two years, 
after which he practiced alone, moving from 
the farm to the village of Bloomingdale, where 
he remained for twenty years. He then came 
to Wheaton, where he has since lived. In 

1877, he was appointed by Gov. Cullom. 
County Judge, holding the office until Decem- 
ber following, when he received the nomination 
of the Republican party, but declined to run. 
Except one year, the Doctor has been the 

E 



74 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



Chairman of the County Republican Committee 
since the organization of the part}'. While 
residing in Bloomingdale, the Doctor held the 
office of Justice of the Peace for eighteen 
years, and also four years in Wheaton. He 
has also held the office of President of the 
Town Council of Wheaton three years. 

JOHN SAUER, hardware, cutlery, etc., is a 
native of Hiszbach, Bavaria, born in the year 
1824. He received a common school education, 
and at the age of twelve he apprenticed to the 
tailor's trade and served three years, aud worked 
as a journeyman until 1846. He then came to 
America, and worked at his trade in New York 
City for nearly three years. He then came 
West to Geneva, Kane Co., Ill, where he worked 
about five years. He then, in 1854, came to 
Wheaton, where he opened a clothing store aud 
did a general tailoring business, which he con- 
tinued some twelve years, when he closed out 
and engaged in the hardware business, which 
he has continued to this day. Of late years, 
his son, Peter K. Sauer, has the active manage- 
ment of the business. In 1847, he married 
Miss Catherine Winter, a native of Hesse-Darin - 
Btadt, near Frankfort. They had eight chil- 
dren, six living — John P., married, lives in 
Wheaton ; Peter K., at home ; Adam J., mar- 
ried, lives in Kane County, 111. ; Boniface, 
Catharine and Elizabeth, in Kane County with 
their brother. Mr. Sauer has always been a 
Democrat, and a member of the Roman Catholic 
Church since his birth. He has held the office 
of Town Councilman of Wheaton. He has a 
farm one and one-half miles southwest of 
Wheatou, which he purchased some twelve 
years ago, and carries on by tenant. 

L. C. STOVER, County Treasurer, is a 
native of York County, Penn., born October 
7, 1842. He was raised on the farm, and 
received a common-school education. In 1854, 
the family came to Du Page County, 111., and 
bought a farm in Milton Township. L. C. 
lived on the farm until August, 1862, when he 



enlisted in the One Hundred and Fifth Regi- 
ment Illinois Infantry, and continued with the 
command until the spring of 1864, when he 
received his discharge, ovving to an accident 
while on the train with a portion of his com- 
pany, being conveyed to Chattanooga. As soon 
as able, he returned to Du Page County, 
York Township, and engaged in clerking, and 
part of the time as Collector of York Town- 
ship. He was out of health, and visited Penn- 
sylvania several times, and, while there in 
1873, he was elected, and returned and entered 
the duties iu December of that year, and has 
held the office since. In 1876, he married Miss 
Jennie A. Eggleston, of Jackson, Mich. He 
is a Republican in politics. 

H. J. TRAVER, farmer ; P. 0. Wheaton ; 
is a native of Montgomery County, N. Y.; 
born in the year 1827, and is the sixth child in 
a family of nine children born to George and 
Elizabeth (Plautz) Traver. They were natives 
of New York. About 1835 or 1836, they 
moved to "Summit Count}-, Ohio, where they 
followed farming. George Traver died iu Sum- 
mit County, Ohio, about the year 1837, owing 
to an accident while cutting with an ax. The 
family then moved to Medina County and 
lived on the farm. Our subject received a 
very limited common-school course of study, 
and, at the age of seventeen, he apprenticed 
to the carriage-maker's trade and served three 
years. He then opened a shop of his own in 
Wadswortn Township, and continued in the 
business for some twenty-eight years, employ- 
ing from twenty to thirty men. During part 
of the time, he also carried on a branch shop 
at Ashland. He sold out his business and 
jived one year in Ashland. Having invested 
largely in Chicago real estate, he came West 
with the view of looking after his property aud 
handling real estate. In 1872, he moved to 
Wheaton, and occupied his present place in 
1873, where he has lived since. His mother, 
who had lived with him, died here on the farm 



MILTON TOWNSHIP. 



75 



in 1877. In 1850, Mr. Traver married Miss 
Charlotte Beach, a native of Wadsworth, Me- 
dina Co., Ohio. She died in 1855. They had 
two children, viz., Emily, now Mrs. Grote, of 
Wheaton, and Marietta, now Mrs. Turner, of 
Ann Arbor, Mich. As second wife, he mar- 
ried Miss Clarissa A. Andrews, a native of 
Akron, Ohio. She died in February, 1882. 
They have six children — Ida. Cora. Ella, 
Gurta, Jessie, Ruby. Mr. T. has ninety-seven 
acres, located one and one-fourth miles east of 
Wheaton. 

G. B. VASTINE, Postmaster, Wheaton, is a 
native of Northumberland County, Penn., born 
in the year 1839, and is the youngest of ten 
children born to Lewis and Martha (Boone) 
Vastine. They were natives of Pennsylvania. 
Martha Boone was the daughter of Hezekiah 
Boone, a second cousin of Daniel Boone. Lewis 
Vastine and family came West in 1854, and 
settled near Elgin, where he bought a large 
land interest, and engaged in farming, where, 
also, he died in 1859 or 1860. Mrs. Vastine 
died in Wheaton in 1879. G. B. lived at home 
until after the death of his father ; he received 
a limited common-school course of study. The 
family remained on the farm until 1865. In 
1862, G. B. went to California, where he re- 
mained one year. He then returned by the 
ship Ariel, which had, on its way from New 
York to Aspinwall, been captured by the Ala- 
bama, and, owing to the passengers being mostly 
women and children, the vessel was not de- 
stroyed. On the return, the ship did not use 
lights, as the Alabama was on the lookout, de- 
termined to destroy her. Returning home, 
he then went to Bloomingdale. where he en- 
gaged in the general store business for one 
year, when he sold out and went on a farm at 
Elgin, and shortly after engaged in the shoe 
trade in Elgin ; thence to Wheaton, where, in 
company with others, he opened a general store, 
which was conducted several years. He then 
engaged in building houses, which he sold, and 



continued until 1875, when he was appointed 
Postmaster of Wheaton, which office he has 
held since. In 1866, he married Miss Effie D. 
Sedgwick, a daughter of Dr. Sedgwick, of 
Wheaton. They have six children. He is a 
Republican. 

HON. WARREN L. WHEATON, P. 0. 
Wheaton, was born in Pomfret, Windham Coun- 
ty, Conn., March 6, 1812, son of James and 
Nancy Ljon Wheaton, who were also natives 
of Windham County. Warren L. received his 
education in the Pomfret schools and at Wood- 
stock Academy, and at the age of nineteen 
began teaching school during the winters and 
worked on the farm during the summer. In 

1837, he started for the West, going to Hart- 
ford by stage, thence by water to Albany and 
to Schenectady by railroad, then the only rail- 
road in the State ; then by the Erie Canal and 
the lakes to Chicago, where he arrived June 1." 
and footed it to Gary's Mill, where he made his 
headquarters and traveled over the country very 
extensively, by horse, visiting Helena and Madi- 
son, Wis., Ottawa, La Salle and Quincy, 111., St, 
Louis, aud returning via Galena, 111. In June, 

1838, he located a section of laud. Soon after, 
while sick, he had a narrow escape from the 
burning of Messrs. Gary's house, where he was 
stopping. In 1838, he put out eighteen acres 
of wheat. June 25, 1848, he married Miss 
Harriet E. Rickard, a native of Pomfret, Wind- 
ham Co., Conn., born June 10, 1826, and came 
to Du Page County, with her parents, when 
she was young ; she died May 29, 1863. By 
the marriage there were six children. During 
the summer of 1848, he received the nomina- 
tion of the Democratic party as candidate to 
the Legislature ; was elected and took an active 
part in the deliberations of that body. He was 
one of the Committee on township organiza- 
tion, which was the first of the township organ- 
zation, aud under that organization was elect- 
ed Supervisor in 1850. Mr. Wheaton is one of 
the original proprietors of the town bearing 



76 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



his name, and which has prospered much, owing 
to his liberal favors, he, with his brother, 
first obtaining the good will of the railroad by 
donating the right of way for two miles. He 
took an active part in securing Wesleyan, now 
Wheaton College, and gave liberally to the 
same. 

JESSE C. WHEATON, farmer, P. 0. 
Wheaton, is a native of Pomfret, Windham Co., 
Conn., and he wasbornMarch 27, 1813. His fa- 
ther was soldier in the war of 1812, and his grand- 
father was a veteran of the Revolution His moth- 
er died Nov. 15, 1814, aged twenty-nine, in 
Pomfret. Our subject was raised on the farm, 
and received the usual district school educa- 
tion, and at the age of seventeen apprenticed to 
the carpenter's trade, serving^ three years ; he 
then went to Worcester, Mass., and in 1837 
left the latter place, by stage, for Norwich, Conn., 
and thence by the Sound, Hudson River, Erie 
Canal and the Lakes to Chicago where he ar- 
rived July 1, and worked at his trade a few 
months. He then came to Warrenville and 
worked on Gary's mill, after which he built sev- 
eral barns, etc. March 26, 1839, he married 
Miss Orinda Gary, and settled on his claim 
which had been made for him in 1837, by 
Messrs. Erastus and Jude Gary. A house was 
built and some laud broke in 1838. This year 
a party jumped the claim but was afterward 
bought off, and Mr. Wheaton has lived on the 
place since. By the marriage there has been 
nine children. Mr. Wheaton was one of the 
the original proprietors of the town bearing 
his name, and has been actively identified with 
its history, aud interested in its growth. He 
labored to obtain and subscribed liberally to 
the construction fund of the Wesleyan, now 
Wheaton College. As a partisan he has been 
identified with the Whig, Free-Soil and Repub- 
lican parties, he casting one of the four votes 
in this county for James G. Birney in 1840. 
He served on the first Iowa Town Council, under 
the charter, and as School Director, for sixteen 



years, during which time he was also Secretary 
of the Board. He took an active part in se- 
curing to Wheaton the present elegant public 
school, aud has served his township in the ca- 
pacity of Collector, Assessor and Road Com- 
missioner. Mr. and Mrs. Wheaton and the 
family are all members of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, he for forty-four years and she 
for fifty-three years. 

OLIVER B. WILCOX, retired, was boru in 
Saudisfield, Berkshire Co., Mass., in the year 
1818 ; he received a limited common school 
course of study, and at the age of twelve 
united with the Congregational Church ; he 
worked on the farm at home until he became of 
age, and thereafter in the neighborhood until 
his twenty-sixth year, when he married Miss 
Esther A., daughter of Josiah Sheldon, of 
Berkshire County, and farmed the home farm; 
soon after his marriage his father died, and he 
bought out the heirs, and remained on the 
place some ten years, when he sold out, and 
with his family and mother moved to Owego, 
N. Y., intending to enter in partnership with 
his brother, the Rev. Samuel C. Wilcox, who 
owned a farm there, and had started a board- 
ing school for boys. Iu Fcbruaiy following the 
removal to New York, his mother died, and the 
Rev. Samuel C. Wilcox died in March. 0. B. 
remained about one year settling up affairs, 
aud then moved to Illinois, locating at Como, 
in Whiteside County. While there in 1857, he 
had a stroke of paralysis, losing his voice and 
the use of his right side, and was laid up for 
some time, and was gradually restored. In 
1860, his wife died, leaving three children, one 
sou aud two daughters. In 1864, he married 
Mrs. L. S. Mead, widow of Dr. T. Mead, of 
Batavia, 111., to which place they soon moved. 
She had two children living at this time, one 
son and one daughter, an invalid, who died in 
July following, and in October his eldest 
daughter died also. In 1865, he bought a form 
in Du Page County, three miles east of Bata- 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



77 



via, which he occupied with his family, and in 
1875 moved to Wheaton, where his wife died 
April 5, 1880. In July, 1881, Mr. Wilcox 
received a sudden stroke of paralysis, which 
seemed to threaten his life. He finally thought 
of sending to Dr. Collins, the great faith doc- 
tor of Boston, when his mind was impressed, 
most forcibly with the question, Why write to 
Dr. Collins? God is by your side ; he placed 
his faith in God and asked for a cure ; instant- 
ly a peculiar sensation came over him and 
lasted oue hour, and he was able to assist him- 
self and to walk thereafter, causing much sur- 
prise to his neighbors and friends, both at home 
and abroad ; he received so man}- letters of 
inquiry about the faith cure, that finally a 
pamphlet giving the matter in detail was 
printed, and over 1,000 circulated. 

WILLIAM H. WAGNER, blacksmith, Pros- 
pect Park, 111., is a native of Hamburg, Berks 
Co., Penn., born in the year 1829. At the age of 
nineteen, he was apprenticed to the blacksmith's 
trade in his native village, serving two and one- 
half years. He then worked as a journeyman 



nearly one year, when he started for the West, 
locating at Newton Station, later Danby, now 
Prospect Park. At that time, the railroad was 
a single track slab rail, and only a switch at 
Newton Station. Mr. Wagner was one of the 
first settlers, and now the only resident one. 
In the fall, he bought out a shop which had just 
been established, and has successfully conducted 
the business ever since. In 1851, he married 
Miss Lovina S. Weidmau, a native of Berks 
County, Penn. By the marriage there have 
been ten children, of whom eight are living. 
Mr, Wagner has held the office of School Di- 
rector for twelve years, and has been Super- 
visor of Milton Township for four years, being 
Chairman the latter year ; he is now a Town 
Trustee of the newly incorporated village of 
Prospect Park. He is a Democrat in politics, 
and though not a member he has been an at- 
tendant of the Congregational Church, of which 
he has been Treasurer for the past nine years. 
Mr. Wagner started in the world without any 
means, and b} r strict attendance to his business 
he has gained an ample competency. 



DOWNER'S GEOYE TOWNSHIP. 



A. B. AUSTIN, nursery, P. 0. Downer's 
Grove, was born in Columbia County, N. Y., 
July 1, 1832. His father, Charles G. Austin, 
born December 3, 1808, in Berkshire County, 
Mass., was one of seven children born to Amos 
and Jerusha (Calleuder) Austin. When fifteen 
years old, he began learning the tanning, shoe- 
making and harness-making business, at which 
he worked sis years. He then engaged in the 
business on his own account for some time at 
different places. He came to Illinois in 1848. 
Was married, 1826, to Catharine, daughter of 
Asahel and Mary (Rockerfeiler) Blakeman, 
born in Columbia County, N. Y., August 23, 
1809. They have had five children, viz., Asel 



B. (subject), Deidamia, Charles, Elvira and 
Esther. Subject attended school and worked 
with his father until thirteen years old, after 
which he lived with his grandfather in New 
York two years. He was married, in this 
county, August 31, 1854, to Susan Havens, 
born in this county February 26, 1837, daugh- 
ter of Lauren and Charlotte (Ranney) Havens, 
he born in Oneida Couuty, N. Y., October 11, 
1799, she born in Ashfield, Mass., April 22, 
1801. Mrs. Austin's parents came to Cass, 
this county, in 1836, where her mother died 
November 15, 1855, and her father December 
9, 1876, at the subject's home. They had 
seven children. Subject settled for a short 



78 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



time in Cass, where, in 1856, he entered into 
partnership with Albert Havens in the nursery 
business. He made one or two changes before 
1869, when he began his present extensive 
nursery business, having as partner Mr. E. A. 
Crittendon. They have thirty acres, well 
stocked with a full line of fruit, ornamental 
and shade trees — in fact, everything to be 
found in a first-class nursery. Mr. and Mrs. 
Austin are the parents of five children, viz., 
Lauren 6. (deceased), Mary Estella, Edith 
Catharine, Mabel Gertrude and Francis Charles 
(deceased). Mr. Austin was Town Clerk two 
terms while at Cass ; has also served in other 
offices ; has been Sunday School Superintendent 
for twelve years in the Universalist organiza- 
tion to which he and his wife belong ; was 
President of the Union League two years. He 
is a Democrat. His brother Charles served in 
Company B, Third Illinois Volunteer Infantry. 
His grandfathers Austin and Blakeman were 
in the Revolutionary war, in which the latter 
was killed. 

B. AUSTIN, retired farmer, P. 0. Downer's 
Grove, is a native of Hancock, Berkshire 
County, Mass., born July 28, 1809, son of 
George and Roxy (Ely) Austin, natives of Mas- 
sachusetts, he a blacksmith by trade. They 
were the pai'ents of eleven children, of whom 
the following are living : Noah E., George, 
John B. (subject), Eleanor, Sarah and Caroline. 
Subject attended the countiy schools during 
the winter seasons, and in summer worked on 
a farm by the month. He married, February 
6, 1832, Lucinda Jenks, who has borne him 
five children, of whom four are living — Daniel, 
Thomas, Sarah (married John Gager) and 
Delia. Mrs. Austin is a daughter of Thomas 
and Rachel (Kllis) Jenks, who were natives of 
Massachusetts and parents of twelve children, 
of whom the following are living — Welcome, 
Lucinda, Nancy, Albina and Ellis. Mr. Austin, 
after his marriage, settled in Chenango County, 
N. Y., where he carried on farming four years, 



then after moving to different places, finally 
settled in York Township, this count}-, in 1844, 
where he remained engaged in farming twenty 
years. In 1864, he came to Downer's Grove, 
bought a property, and has since lived there. 
He has accumulated considerable property by 
his own labors ; he first settled in a log cabin, 
and now has 260 acres of well improved, fifteen 
acres of timber, three lots and sixteen and a 
half acres in Downer's Grove, beside 100 acres 
in Downer's Grove Township. Mr. Austin has 
held several small offices. His wife is a mem- 
ber of the M. E. Church at Downer's Grove. 

PERRY J. ASHTON, farmer, P. O. Hins- 
dale, was born December 8, 1846, in Livingston 
County, N. Y. ; is a son of Palmer and Sally 
(Bush) Ashton, natives of Tompkins County, 
N. Y. His parents came to Illinois in 1865, 
and his father engaged some time afterward in 
a butcher shop at Hinsdale, this being the first 
one of the place. He and wife are now living 
in Boone County, Iowa, the former a member 
of the Christian Church, and the latter of the 
Baptist. Our subject is one of five children, 
and being attentive to his studies, obtained a 
good common school education. He worked in 
his father's meat market until 1862, when he 
enlisted in Company H, Twenty-fourth New 
York Cavalry Volunteers, in which he served 
two years. In the beginning of the battle of 
Petersburg he received a sunstroke, from which 
he has never fully recovered. Soon after leav- 
ing the army, he came to Hinsdale, and rented 
land of Bush and Howard for two years. In 
1867, he married Mary A. Roth, daughter of 
David Roth, of Hinsdale. They have had five 
children — Willie, Ida, Mamie, Edith (deceased) 
and Clara. Mr. and Mrs. Ashton remained one 
3 - ear on the farm of the latter's father, and 
then went to Western Springs, where they 
erected the first house in that place. He was 
next engaged with his father in the butcher 
business for four years, after which he made 
several trades of property until he procured 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



79 



his present farm of twenty-nine acres in 
Downer's Grove Township. This land is well 
improved, and contains one of the best 
orchards in the county. Mr. Ashton and wife 
were members of the Baptist Church of this 
place, until it disbanded or. account of the 
scarcity of members. He votes the Greenback 
ticket. 

E. S. ANDRUS, farmer, P. 0. Lemont, Cook 
County, was born in this county December 27, 
1835. and was probably the first white child 
born in what is now Downer's Grove Township. 
He was married, in 1862, to Apthia, a daughter 
of Andrew and Phoebe (Daily) McMillan, resi- 
dents of this township and parents of nine chil- 
dren. Mr. and Mrs. Andrus are the parents of 
four children, namely, Frankie M., Albert R.. 
Marvin P. and Phoebe M. He settled on his 
present farm of fifty acres in 1867, and has 
made good improvements. His father, Thomas 
Andrus, was among the first settlers of Chicago, 
having come there about 1833; he was born in 
Vermont January 26, 1801, and is a son of 
Lincoln and Amy (Short) Andrus. natives of 
Massachusetts. Thomas was married, in 1823, 
to Philena Fox, by whom he was given two 
children, viz., Mary (Mrs. Moses Walton), Eliza- 
beth (Mrs. Lorenzo Walton). Mrs. Andrus died 
and Thomas was married, March 23, 1835> 
to Melissa A., daughter of John and Zerua 
(Sanford) Snow. After going to Chicago, he 
worked at carpentering, and drove the first pile 
in the Chicago River. In 1835, he settled on 
eighty acres of land, a part of his present farm 
of 130 acres. He kept a hotel in a log cabin, 
and was Postmaster for fourteen years. Mr. 
Andrus began breaking the wild prairie with an 
ox team and a plow with a wooden mold-board. 
He has been Justice of the Peace, County Com- 
missioner, Town Clerk and Assessor. He 
assessed the township in 1870. He and 
family are stanch Republicans. Thomas cast 
his first vote for Jackson. The companion of 
Mr. Thomas is yet with him, yet very feeble. 



She was married, prior to that with him, to 
Dwight Bartlett, the result being one child, 
Horace D., a farmer in California. 

ANSON AYERS, retired farmer, P. 0. Hins- 
dale, was born in Romulus, Seneca Co., N. Y., 
Februaiy 17, 1819 ; son of Zebulon and Sarah 
(Scudder) Ayers, natives of New Jersey and 
parents of nine children, four of whom are liv- 
ing — Augustus D., Louise (Mrs. Gurney, of 
Chicago), Nancy (Mrs. Hannah, of Chicago) 
and Anson. His parents were Presbyterians ; 
his father, born Januar}- 22, 1775, died July 
25, 1828. His mother, born December 20, 1780, 
died December 29, 1864. Anson received an 
ordinary education in the district schools, and 
at the age of seventeen apprenticed to the car- 
riage maker's trade, at which he worked till he 
was twenty-one, when he attended an academy 
for a time and afterward taught school for 
a short time. He then engaged in farming, 
which he followed in his native State twelve 
years, after which he engaged in a saddlery, 
hardware aud leather store, with D. Gurney & 
Steele, in Peoria, 111., remaining with that firm 
about twenty years, and doing well. He then 
engaged in the saw-milling business in Gurney, 
Mich., for about eighteen months. In 1867, he 
came to Naperville, this county, renting a farm 
there one year ; then bought eighty acres, now 
in the corporation of Hinsdale, where he now 
lives. In Peoria, 111., September 3, 1861, he 
married Mary J. Mish, who has borne him 
three children — Charles, born August 25, 1862, 
died December 1, 1864 ; Mary Louise, born 
December 4, 1864 ; and Frank E., born August 
4, 1867, now employed in a railroad office in 
Chicago. Mrs. Ayers was born in Franklin 
County, Penn., March 30, 1830, and is a daugh- 
ter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Gillam) Mish, na- 
tives of Franklin County, Penn. He died in 
November, 1837. She, born in 1806, is still 
living. Mr. Ayers and family are members of 
the Congregational Church. He is a Repub- 
lican. 



80 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



FREDERICK ANDERMANN, farmer, P. O. 
Gower, was born in Hassbergen, Hanover, Ger- 
many, January 20, 1843, and is the only child 
of John and Dorothea (Strangmaun) Ander- 
mann ; lie, residing with subject, born in Hass- 
bergen, Hanover, Germany, September 28, 1809 ; 
she, born in Heemsen, Hanover, Germanj T , Feb- 
ruary 14, 1805, died May 25, 1876. Mr. An- 
dermaun obtained a good common-school edu- 
cation in both the German and English lan- 
guages. In Downer's Grove, September 21, 
1866, he married Sophia Marguerite Schramm, 
born in Wietzen, Hanover, Germany, Novem- 
ber 15, 1841, daughter of Wilhelm and Mar- 
guerite (Palm) Schramm ; he, born in Wietzen, 
Hanover, Germany, died in July, 1871 ; she, 
born in Grane, Hanover, Germany. Mrs. An- 
dermann's parents came to Illinois in 1862 
and settled in Cook County. Mr. and Mrs. 
Andermanu have been blessed with seven chil- 
dren, four boys and three girls — William F., 
Henry F. W., John C. H., Frederick G. A., 
Louisa M. F., May D. and Emma S. Mr. An- 
dermann is engaged in farming 122 acres of 
fine land owned by himself and father, the at- 
tainment of their joint labors. Mr. Andermanu 
is also clerk of the Downer's Grove Insurance 
Company. He has held several small offices in 
the county. He and his wife are members of 
the Lutheran Church. 

JOHN ATWOOD, farmer, P. 0. Downer's 
Grove, was born in England January 13, 1819. 
His parents, John and Jane (Knight) Atwood, 
were also natives of same country, and parents 
of three children. Subject attended school but 
a few days, and at the age of ten began herd- 
ing sheep at 25 cents per week. At fourteen 
years of age, he hired with a farmer at £3 per 
year, and at the end of nine years his wages 
were increased to £11 per year. He was mar- 
ried in 1844 to Sarah Shaldrick, and started 
immediately for Illinois, and soon after landing 
settled where he now resides. He bought, in 
partnership with Mr. Batrom, eighty-eight acres 



of prairie and eight acres of timber. Batrom 
soon died, and Mr. A.twood became owner of 
the farm, save eight acres, which was left to 
the widow of Mr. Batrom. Our subject has 
but four children living — Thomas, Albert, Jane 
and Eliza ; he had one son, named William, 
who died in Company D, Illinois Volunteer In- 
fantry. By careful labor and strict economy, 
Mr. Atwood has succeeded in increasing his 
farm to 150 acres, and has improved the same, 
making it one of the best farms in the county. 
He is a Republican. 

I. P. BLODGETT, farmer, P. 0. Downer's 
Grove, was born in Belchertown, Mass., Sep- 
tember 14, 1823, son of Israel P. and Avis 
(Dodge) Blodgett. He born in Amherst, Mass., 
March 4, 1797, came to Will County, 111., in 
1831, with his family ; settled on a farm, where 
he remained till 1835 ; then sold out, and in 
February, 1836, bought a farm where Downer's 
Grove now stands, where he lived until his 
death, which occurred November 24, 1861. He 
served in the Black Hawk war. His wife was 
a native of Belchertown, Mass., born June 5, 
1796, and died in Chicago March 10, 1882. 
They were members of the first Congregational 
Church founded in Northern Illinois, and were 
the parents of nine children, six of whom are 
living. Subject remained at home till 1849, 
when he went to California, where he engaged 
in mining, stock-dealing and merchandising till 
1858, when he returned home. In Downer's 
Grove, August 30, 1859, he married Mary M., 
daughter of Alonzo C. and Rosalind (H3 - de) 
Blodgett, natives of Amherst, Mass., he born 
April 24, 1805; she, born July 13, 1809, died 
November 16, 1849. From this union three 
children have been born — Edward A., Charles 
P. and Cora C. Mrs. Blodgett was born at 
South Hadley, Mass , May 13, 1833. Her par- 
ents had five children, of whom three are liv- 
ing. After his marriage, Mr. Blodgett settled 
in Lisle Township, this county, where he lived 
till March, 1882, when he moved to Downer's 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



81 



Grove. He owns 116 acres of land in Lisle 
Township, makes a specialty of breeding Clydes- 
dale horses, and brought the first imported 
horse to this count}-. He is a Republican. His 
wife is a member of the Congregational Church 
in Lisle Township. While in Lisle Township, 
he filled the offices of Road Commissioner, 
Town Clerk and Justice of the Peace. 

ALFRED BUNNEL, farmer, P. 0. Downer's 
Grove, was born June 21, 1813, in St. Lawrence 
Co., N. Y; is a son of Moses A. and Lola 
(Hitchcock) Bunnel, the former a native of Mas- 
sachusetts and the latter of Connecticut. His 
father was a weaver in his younger days, and 
kept a country hotel on the old military road 
from Plattsburg ; was called out to serve with 
the militia in the war of 1812 ; was at Ogdens- 
burg when the British attacked that place. 
Our subject attended school and worked on his 
father's farm until the latter gave him twelve 
acres of land, when he purchased thirty-three 
acres more, thus making a good farm of forty- 
five acres. This he remained upon till 1854, 
when he sold it and came to Illinois, where he 
purchased his present farm of seventy-eight 
acres, which is among the best ones of this 
township. In 18-11, he married Nancy J. Har- 
mon, who has blessed him with two children, 
viz., Robert F. and George R. The former 
married Mary Persons, a daughter of Charles 
E. and Elvena (Dwight) Persons, natives of 
Jefferson Co., N. Y. George R. married Nettie, 
a sister of his brother's wife. Mr. Bunnel, al- 
though sixty-nine years of age, is hale and 
heart} - , and gives his personal attention to the 
farm. He is not an office-seeker. He and his 
wife are members of the Baptist Church. 

FRANKLIN BLANCHARD, miller, and 
manufacturer of cheese and butter, is a native 
of Downer's Grove. He was born November 7, 
1838, son of Walter and Alvira (Norris) Blanch- 
ard, natives of New York. Walter Blanchard 
was born March 31, 1807 ; came with his family 
to Downer's Grove in 1836, and bought a farm of 



103 acres. During the late war he was Captain 
of Company K, Thirteenth Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry ; was wounded at the battle of Mission 
Ridge, and died at Chattanooga December 4, 
1863, seven days after being wounded ; he was 
a Probate Judge iu this county for seven years, 
and resigned the position to enter the army. 
His wife was born in Orange County, N. Y.. 
April 8, 1821. They had four children— Frank- 
lin, William, Elizabeth and Nancy. Franklin 
worked on the farm till he was nineteen years 
of age, then apprenticed to the carpenter's, 
trade, at which he worked till 1861, when he 
enlisted in Company K, Thirteenth Illinois Vol- 
unteer Infantry, served three years and three 
mouths. On his return from the army, he en- 
gaged in the pursuit of his trade, also ran ma- 
chinery in wagon-shops in Batavia, 111., three 
years, and sold and put up Halliday's windmills 
two and a half years. He then came to Down- 
er's Grove, where he has since run a flouring 
and feed mill, taking into partnership with him 
in 1881, Francis Miller. He started a cheese 
and butter factory in December, 1881, and is 
doing a good business. He married in Cass, 
this county, April 17, 1865, Juliana Clifford, 
born in Barrington, 111., July 22, 1838, daugh- 
ter of Lyman and Roxana (Hawley) Clifford, 
he a native of Jefferson Co., N. Y., born May 
24, 1809, now residing in Chicago; she is a 
native of Hampshire County, Mass., born 
August 18, 1816, died Dec. 30, 1881. They were 
the parents of nine childien, five of whom are 
living. Mr. Blanchard is a member of Batavia 
Lodge, No. 404, A., F. & A. M. He has an adopt- 
ed daughter, Mabel N., who was born in Bata- 
via, Kane Co., Ill, April 28, 1874. Capt. 
Blanchard was a man honored and respected 
in the community in which he lived ; he was 
presented with a fine gold-headed cane by the 
Plow Boys of Downer's Grove, as a mark of 
their esteem. 

ISAAC S. BUSH, salesman, Hinsdale, was 
born July 13, 1827, in Hinsdale, Cattaraugus 



82 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



Co., N. Y., and is a son of Peter and Elizabeth 
(Howe) Bush, natives of Pennsylvania. His 
father was a shoemaker and farmer, and was a 
Baptist, as was also his wife. Mr. Bush is one 
of eleven children; he attended school until four- 
teen years of age, when he entered a tannery in 
Buffalo. In two years, he was promoted to the 
position of clerk in the leather store of his uncle 
John Bush. In 1854, the leather Arm, " Bush 
& Howard," sent him out as salesman, at which 
he was actively engaged until 186(5, when he 
came to Hinsdale, this count}-, where he soon 
began keeping a store. At this time, he was 
appointed Postmaster, and was also Notary 
Public. In 1869, he withdrew from his former 
business and entered the employ of an agricult- 
ural establishment of Evansville, Ind. While 
in their employ, he spent most of his time in 
the Southern States, repairing and setting up 
machinery, collecting and selling everything in 
their line. He remained with them till 1880, at 
which time he was employed by a similar firm 
in Wisconsin. With the latter firm, he re- 
mained until recently. December 15, 1858, Mr. 
Bush married Hattie A. Pratt, a daughter 
of Welcome and Susan P. (Hunt) Pratt, natives 
of Vermont. This union has resulted in two 
children, viz., Joseph P., born October 11, 1861, 
and Jennie S., born December 13, 1865. Mr. 
Bush had the honor of naming Hiusdale after 
his own native town in New York. He owns a 
house and lot in this place, and fifteen acres of 
ground known as Bush's Addition to Hinsdale; 
is a member of Evansville Lodge, A., F. & A. 
M., and is a stanch Republican. 

CHARLES BOCKMANN, farmer, P. O. 
Gower, was born in Germany in 1834 ; is the 
son of Couradt and Catharine Bockman, who 
came to Willow Springs, Cook Co., 111., in 1845. 
They had three children, viz., Margaret (now 
Mrs. Peter J. Lutz), Catharine (Mrs. George 
Haixhold), and Charles. They are Lutherans. 
The mother is eighty-six years old and still liv- 
ing. Charles attended school in Chicago about 



four months. By hard work, he has become 
possessed of sixty-nine acres of well-improved 
land. In 1865, he was married to Matilda 
Stenter, a native of Hanover, Prussia, who 
came to this country with an uncle in 1864. 
She has blessed Mr. Bockman with eight chil- 
dren, as follows : Conradt, Mary, Charles, Peter, 
Hemy, Jacob, Margaret and Emma. Mr. Boch- 
man and wife are members of the Lutheran 
Church, in which he holds office. 

F. BASCOM, minister, Hinsdale, was born 
June 8, 1804, in Lebanon, New London Co., 
Conn.; is the son of Abiel and Sibyl (Roberts) 
Bascom, natives of Connecticut. They had ten 
children, of whom our subject alone survives. 
He attended school during the winters, or about 
three months each year, and studied during 
spare moments in the summers, until he pre- 
pared himself to teach school, which oc- 
cupation he followed until twenty years of 
age. At this period, he entered Yale College, 
from which he graduated with high honors in 
1848. He then became a teacher in an academy 
at New Canaan, Conn., where he continued one 
year. He then took a three years' course in 
the Theological Seminary at Yale, at the com- 
pletion of which he was appointed a tutor in 
the college, and held the position two years. 
In 1833, he came to Tazewell Count}', 111., as 
Home Missionary, residing in Pekin, and the 
interior of the count}', and organizing many 
churches. For ten years Mr. Bascom acted as 
agent of the American Home Missionary Society 
of Illinois, and was for several years pastor of the 
First Presbyterian Church of Chicago; was 
six years at Galesburg, seven years at Dover, 
and five years at Princeton, doing a noble 
work at each of these places. He built up the 
infant church at Hinsdale. Since 1872, he has 
spent his time among the weaker churches, 
helping to set them upon a solid foundation. 
He preaches now at Western Springs ; was 
first married in 1833 to Ellen P. Cleveland, who 
died in 1838 ; was again married to Elizabeth 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



83 



Sparhawk, by whom he had four children — 
Charles P., editor, and George S., Congregational 
minister ; the others deceased. His second 
wife dying, he married Ruth Pomeroy, by 
whom he has one son, Henry, a physician. Mr. 
Bascom was one of the pioneers of this coun- 
try ; has lived a successful life, and although 
past his threescore and ten, is still hale and 
hearty. 

PHILIP BAYER, barber, baker, confectioner, 
etc., Hinsdale, is a native of Germany, born Jan- 
uary 28, 1854. His parents, John P. and Cath- 
arine (Balzar) Bayer, also natives of German}', 
came here in 1871, and are now living with 
subject. Of their eight children, two are liv- 
ing — Philip and Catharine. Philip received his 
education in his native country, and at the age 
of eleven apprenticed to the barber's trade, at 
which he has since been chiefly engaged. His 
father is a tailor, and Philip spent some time at 
that trade also. After landing in New York 
City, he worked in a shop there for nine 
months ; then came to Oak Park, 111., where 
he ran a shop two years. In 1874, he bought 
out Jacob Bohlander, of Hinsdale, where he 
has since been engaged in business, with the 
exception of a few months of the year 1879, 
which he spent in Kansas, where he met with 
ill-fortune in business and returned to Hinsdale 
with but very little means, but by energy and 
industry has since built up a good business, his 
wife aiding him in his endeavors. He has a 
good barber shop, bakery, confectioner}- and 
general store, and is having a lucrative trade. 
He was married, December 15. 1877, to Mag- 
dalena Schweickart, a native of Germany, who 
has borne him two children, one living— Katie. 
Mrs. Bayer's parents — Philip and Catharine 
(Grass) Schweickart — came from Germany in 
18G6, and settled in Downer's Grove, where her 
mother died in 1871. Her father is now in 
Colorado. They had eight children, two of 
whom are living — Sarah (Mrs. J. W. Patricks) 
and Magdalena. They were Lutherans. Mr. 



and Mrs. Bayer are connected with the Luth- 
eran Church at Fullersburg. 

JOHN BOHLANDER, hardware, Hinsdale, 
was born May 24, 1836, on board an American 
vessel on the Atlantic Ocean, son of John and 
Catharine (Glos) Bohlander, natives of Germany. 
John Bohlander, subject's father, emigrated with 
his family to America, and landed at Bos- 
ton, Mass., where he remained one year ; then 
came West, landing in Chicago in the latter 
part of 1837, and engaged in farming in Cook 
County fourteen years ; then sold out and 
bought a farm in York Township, this county, 
where he died in 18G2. His wife died several 
years previous. They had seven children — 
Mary, John, Margaret, Peter, Philip, Henry and 
Adam. Subject's father, by a second marriage, 
had four children — Amelia, William, Dora and 
Ernest. John received a limited education, 
and in 1859 engaged iu the grocery business 
at York Center, and after three years sold out 
and bought a farm of eighty acres in Downer's 
Grove Township, which he afterward sold to 
Charles Mandel. In 1871, he opened a grocery 
in Hinsdale, remaining iu that business six 
years ; then sold his stock at auction and en- 
gaged in the general hardware trade with 
Charles Pfeifer in 1878, and has since been 
engaged in that business, under the firm name 
of Bohlander & Co., doing a good business in 
all kinds of farming implements, tinware, etc. 
He married, in 1861, Solmea Wolf, a native of 
France, who has borne him nine children, six liv- 
ing — Caroline, John, Henry, Louisa, Sarah and 
Emma. The three deceased were Katie, Ame- 
lia and Pollen. Mr. Bohlander was Postmaster 
two years while in York Center. 

J. W. BUSHNELL, retired farmer, P. 0. 
Hinsdale, was born March 18, 1825, in Oneida 
County, N. Y., son of Calvin and Polly (Will- 
iams) Bushnell. Calvin Bushnell was born in 
Connecticut April 29, 1781, and died May 18, 
1864 ; he was a Presbyterian minister, of which 
church his wife was long a member; she was 



84 



BIOGKAPHICAL: 



bora in New York October 9, 1787, and died 
January 6, 1877 ; they were the parents of ten 
children. J. W. received an ordinary educa- 
tion, and at twenty-eight years of age began 
farming on his own account. He married June 
12, 1856, Mary J. Convis, born August 18, 
1S33, daughter of Thomas and Emeline (Peck) 
Convis, natives of New York, and parents of 
six children. Mr. and Mrs. Bushnell have two 
children — Charlotte L., born August 21, 1857, 
and Elmira A., born July 16, 1865. After his 
marriage, Mr. Bushnell settled in Kendall 
County, 111., where he remained till 1869, when 
he moved to Sandwich, and invested some cap- 
ital in the Sandwich Manufacturing Company. 
After several changes of residence, he came to 
Hinsdale in 1882, where he erected a fine build- 
ing, and will probably locate permanently. He 
and his family are active members of the Con- 
gregational Church ; he is a Republican. Mr. 
Bushnell and his brother Calvin own 240 acres 
of well-improved land in Iroquois County, 111., 
all of which they have acquired by their own 
efforts. Mr. Bushnell attends to the renting 
of the property. 

W. S. BROOKINS, hardware, Downer's 
Grove, was bora in Vernon, N. Y., March 5, 
1826, of which place his parents David and 
Ruby (Smith) Brookius, were natives ; the 
family came to this county in 1838 ; sub- 
ject's father, prior to that date had sold car- 
riages in Chicago, and was the first in that 
business in the city. Subject's parents had 
nine children, eight living — Wooster H. (in 
Minnesota), Jane (now Mrs. Acy Manly, of 
Wisconsin), Erin (now Mrs. Z. M. Brown, 
Minnesota), W. S. (subject), Margaret (Mrs. A. 
Woods), Frances (Mrs. Dr. Le Due), Esther, 
Mrs. Dr. A. Randall, Kansas), Thaddeus, and 
Emma (Mrs. Charles Blodgett). Subject worked 
on the farm till 1856, then went to Minnesota 
and engaged in the livery business with his 
brother, Wooster, at Monticello, that State, 
forfive years. He then returned to this county 



and engaged in farming six years, thence to 
Ogle County, 111., bought 131 acres of land, 
and after farming it two years, sold out and 
went to Minneapolis, Minn., where he dealt in 
horses for five years. He then came to Chi- 
cago, engaged in the hotel^business there a short 
time, and in 1873 came to Downer's Grove, 
and has since been engaged in the hardware 
business there in company with J. W. Rogers ; 
the}' also deal in lumber, coal, etc. In 1853, 
he married Lucy Thompson, a native of Keene, 
N. H., who was killed by a train on the Chicago 
Burlington & Quincy Railroad. Mr. Brookins 
was Deputy Sheriff one term, and afterward 
Sheriff one term in Wright Count}', Minn. He 
has an adopted child, Mary, a teacher in Chi- 
cago ; is a Democrat. 

JAMES M. BARR, Postmaster, Downer's 
Grove, was bora in St. Lawrence County, N. 
Y., November 5, 1838 ; son of John and Emily 
(Smith) Barr, natives of Massachusetts. Sub- 
ject attended the country schools and also at 
Gouverneur, N. Y., three terms, and,' at the age 
of nineteen years, entered the employ of the 
Farmers' Insurance Company, remaining with 
that corporation for some time. In 1857, he 
settled at Downer's Grove and taught school 
one term at Cass, this township. In 1861, he 
enlisted in Company B, Thirty-third Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry, and served till March, 
1863. After leaving the army, he became an 
agent for the Farmers' Insurance Company, 
Freeport, and afterward for the American In- 
surance Company, Chicago. He was commis- 
sioned Postmaster in July, 1881. He married 
Sarah Whiffen, who has borne him six children, 
viz., Nellie, George, Harry, Lester, Edna and 
Ethel. Mr. Ban- takes a deep interest in all 
public enterprises ; he has been Assessor for 
seven years, and Police Constable for many 
years. He is a member of Hinsdale Lodge, 
No. 649, A., F. & A. M.; was first Senior War- 
den in same. His wife is a member of the 
Baptist Church of Downer's Grove. 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



85 



MRS. ALMIRA CLARK, farmer, P. 0. 
Downer's Grove, was born December 4, 1815. 
Her parents David and Abigail (Taylor) Well- 
man, natives of Connecticut, settled in Lee 
County, 111., in 1847, where they died ; they had 
ten children. Mrs. Clark attended school but lit- 
tle, and spent her younger days spinning flax- 
She was married, in 1836, to Ephraim Holley ; 
by this marriage they had four children, one 
living, viz., James L., who married Rhoda Gib- 
son (now deceased) ; he was in Company K, 
Thirteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, as was 
also his brother Franklin, who was wounded at 
the battle of Chickasaw, and died in the hospi- 
tal at St. Louis, Mo. Mr. Holley died in 1849, 
and was buried in Downer's Grove. Subject 
was married, in 1852, to William H. Clark, 
and from this union was born one child, now 
Mrs. Joseph Oldfield. Mrs. Clark settled on 
the present little farm of forty acres when it 
was mostly raw prairie, on which stood a little 
cabin which had been formerly used for a 
schoolhouse. She now lives with her only sur- 
viving son. She is a faithful member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, to which she has 
belonged over thirty years. 

CHARLES CURTISS, farmer, P. 0. Down- 
er's Grove, was born November 3, 1828, in Ver- 
mont. His parents, Samuel and Mary (Hatch) 
Curtiss, he of Connecticut, she of Vermont. 
They had five children. Samuel Hatch, born 
in 1789, was Postmaster here, and died in 1867 ; 
his wife, born in 1795, still survives, making 
her home iu the village ; she is eighty -six years 
old, and is hale and hearty. Charles attended 
school in this township, and also a select school 
at Naperville in 1848. In 1850, he and his broth- 
er Henry went to California, and engaged in 
mining for about five years. On his return in 
1856, he was married to Laura A. Thatcher, of 
Ottawa, 111., daughter of Eldred Thatcher, whose 
sketch appears elsewhere in this work. Mr. 
and Mrs. Curtiss have three children — Addie 
H. (married Charles Calwell), Samuel (a clerk 



at Hinsdale), and Alice M. Mr. Curtiss has 
been School Director, Township Collector and 
Assessor, Village Trustee, Justice of the Peace, 
and a member of the Board of Supervisors, to 
which latter position he has been elected five 
terms, and is the present incumbent. He has a 
fine residence in Downer's Grove. He cast his 
first Presidential vote for Gen. Scott, on the 
Whig ticket, and is now a stanch Republican. 
Himself, wife and eldest daughter are members 
of the Baptist Church. 

R. 0. CURTISS, farmer, P. 0. Downer's Grove, 
was born October 19, 1830, in Rutland County. 
Vt.; is a son of Samuel and Mary (Hatch) Cur- 
tiss, natives of Vermont, and the parents of five 
children — Oromel, Eli W., Henry H., Charles 
and Roswell 0. The parents came to Downer's 
Grove in 1836, and bought land near the pres- 
ent village. Here the father was recognized as 
one of the leading men of the township ; he 
was Postmaster, and held other prominent po- 
sitions. He died February 24, 1S67. His por- 
trait appears in this work. The mother is liv- 
ing at the age of eighty-six. R. 0. attended 
school as much as was convenient. He labored 
on his father's farm in his younger days, and 
worked in a hotel which was kept by his par- 
ents for twelve years, on Maple avenue. In 
1853, this building was burned and our subject 
began merchandising soon after, in Wheatou, 
in partnership with H. H. Curtiss, which he 
continued for four years. He then bought a 
farm in Du Page County, and worked on the 
same. In 1873, he engaged iu the grocery bus- 
iness in Chicago with H. H. Curtiss, from 
which he withdrew in four years, and returned 
to his farm, which he still continues. He was 
married March 1, 1855, to Cordelia, a daughter 
of Silas H. and Sophia (Fowler) Lyman. She 
was one of six children, three of whom survive 
— Harriet, Cordelia aud Eliza. Mr. C.'s anion 
has blessed him with three children — Hattie, 
Carrie and Willie (deceased). He has served 
in some small offices. He and his wife are 



86 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



members of the Baptist Church of Downer's 
Grove. 

CHARLES CURTIS, farmer, P. 0. Hins- 
dale, was born July 1, 1834, in Mercer, Som- 
erset Co., Me.; is a son of Bracey and Eliza 
(Day) Curtis, natives of Kennebunk, Me. His 
father was a farmer and sailor, born in 1800 ; 
was Captain of a vessel on one trip to the West 
Indies ; had nine children, three of whom are 
deceased ; those living are Daniel D., a man- 
ufacturer of ladies' straw hats at Medfield, 
Mass. — will do $1,500,000 worth of business 
this year ; Irving, Lizzie S., Edward B., Mar- 
tha D. and Charles, our subject. The latter 
attended school as much as was convenient and 
worked on the farm till twenty-one years of 
age, when he commenced work in the manu- 
factory spoken of above. Here he remained 
two years, at the end of which time he began 
clerking in a wholesale millinery establishment, 
where he remained three years. In 1861, he 
enlisted in Company C, Ninth Maine Volunteer 
Infantry. In 1864, he started a grocery busi- 
ness in Skowhegan, Me., under the firm name 
of Farrand & Curtis. From this he withdrew 
in one year and came to Chicago, where he was 
engaged for one year in the wholesale millinery 
business with Keith Bros. In 1866, in Chica- 
go, he married Miss A. M. Fall, a native of 
New York, born February 18, 1843, which 
union resulted in six children, viz., Minnie 
Edith, Edna May, Irving Claude, Lida Day, 
George Percy and Walter Ray. Soon after his 
marriage, Mr. Curtis engaged with M. Camp- 
bell in a hair manufactory. This he continued 
three years, when he sold out and bought six 
and one-half acres of land in Clarendon Hills, 
which he afterward traded for his present prop- 
erty. He rents his farm, and, during the win- 
ter, manufactures babies' straw hats in Chica- 
go. Is a Democrat. 

PEARL S. COSSITT, A. M., son of Asa, 
C., Jr., and Ra. Seymour (Steel) Cossitt, was 
born in West Hartford, Conn., March 30, 1817. 



His father dying when he was young, the son 
went to live with an uncle in Tennessee. He 
received a good business education, and in 1832 
removed to La Grange, Tenn. He returned to 
New England with some means ; entered Trin- 
ity College, Hartford, Conn.; graduated in 1845 ; 
studied law and then theology at East Wind- 
sor and Princeton, N. J., and was licensed to 
preach by the Hartford Central Association. 
He preached at West Hartland and New Hart- 
ford Center, Conn.; then at East Long Meadow, 
Mass. ; was ordained pastor of the Second Pres- 
byterian Church in Hanover, N. J.; came West 
to McHenry County, 111., in 1854, when he 
bought a good farm, yet taught and preached. 
In New Hartford, Conn., he married Sarah 
Northrop, by whom he had one child — Florence, 
who died in New England. In 1856, he mar- 
ried Eliza E. Squires, who was killed by the 
cars at Western Springs. In 1858, he removed 
to Indiana, where he resided during the war, in 
which he took an active part. In 1865, he re- 
moved to Noble, Richland Co., 111., and was en- 
gaged in the mercantile business there for some 
ten years with success. While in Indiana, he 
was for a season connected with the Terre Haute 
Female College. In 1875, he removed to Cook 
County, and in 1878 married Miss Mary John- 
son, of Richland, who has borne him two chil- 
dren — Fannie and May. In 1880, he bought 
the Rogers farm, near Downer's Grove. Mr. 
Cossitt is a man of books ; has read and written 
much and is a good speaker. 

HENRY CARPENTER, retired merchant, 
Downer's Grove, is a native of Washington 
County, N. Y., born February 22, 1810, son of 
William and Lois (Austin) Carpenter, who were 
the parents of six children. William Carpenter 
was a native of West Chester County, N. Y., 
and died in Herkimer County, N. Y., in 1822 ; 
his wife, a native of Saratoga County, N. Y., 
died in 1814. Mr. Carpenter was apprenticed 
to the harness-maker's trade, at which he worked 
several years, and in 1837 came to Downer's 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



87 



Grove Township, this county ; bought a farm, 
brought his family there in 1839, and in 1840 
moved to the village of Downer's Grove. In 
1845, he built a storeroom adjoining his dwell- 
ing-house, and continued in business until 1857, 
when he sold out to Hatch & Thatcher. Since 
that time he has been engaged in farming ; was 
also in the boot and shoe business, but is now 
living retired. In Orleans County, N. Y., October 
14, 1832, he married Martha Blanchard, a native 
of Whitehall, N. Y., born January 21, 1813, 
died October 2, 1882 ; they had three children 
— Walter, born November 5, 1833, a fireman 
on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, 
killed at Chicago by the bursting of a boiler ; 
William H., born August 6, 1842, died when 
young ; Martha J., born September 15, 1845, 
wife of B. W. Farer (the first white child born 
in Downer's Grove), and an adopted son of 
William S., employed in a notion store in Chi- 
cago. Mrs. Carpenter was a daughter of Ahi- 
mas and Mary (Tolford) Blanchard, natives of 
New Hampshire ; he was born April 27, 1765, 
died in 1817; she died in 1833. Mr. Carpenter 
is one of the earl}' settlers of Downer's Grove, 
is an influential man, and one highly respected 
in the community in which he resides. He has 
held the offices of Assessor, Justice of the 
Peace and Notary Public; was Enrolling Officer 
during the late war. He was formerly a Whig, 
now a Republican. 

JOHN S. COE, retired blacksmith, Fullers- 
burg, was born in Rockland County, N. Y., 
November 28, 1815 ; son of Samuel and Mary 
(Coukling) Coe, who were the parents of fifteen 
children, seven of whom are living. Ann, the 
eldest child, was born in 1801, and is still liv- 
ing, and hale and hearty. Subject's father 
served in the war of 1812. John S. received 
but a limited education, his mother dying when 
he was young. He made his home with his 
cousin, John Halsled, with whom he learned 
the trade of a millwright. In 1831, he went to 
New York City, where he learned the black- 



smith's trade ; was in that city during the 
cholera epidemic in 1832. After working in 
New York five years, he went to Bristol, where 
he worked for Chauncey Jerome. He after- 
ward went to Ypsilanti, Mich., where he worked 
at his trade for awhile, then went to Ann 
Arbor, Mich., and thence, in 1839, to Summit, 
Cook Co., 111., where he remained till 1841, 
when he located at York Centre, this county, 
where he engaged in farming and also worked 
at his trade. In 1844, he came to Fullersburg, 
where he ran a blacksmith shop till lately, 
when he retired, his son taking charge of the 
business. He owns -160 acres of land in this 
township, which he farmed for many years, but 
which he now rents. His children are Samu- 
el, Elizabeth (Mrs. James Walls), Alice (Mrs. 
George Long) and Clarence T. The latter was 
married April 7, 1882, to Libbie Chloe, of Chi- 
cago; and is running the shop formerly owned 
by his father, and makes a specialty of the 
manufacture of buggies, carriages, etc. Mr. 
Coe was director of the first school in this part 
of the county, and was the first storekeeper 
here. 

SAMUEL COLWELL, farmer, P. 0. Down- 
er's Grove, was born in Madison County, N. Y., 
September 20, 1842, and is a son of James 
and Ann (Reese) Colwell, who were the parents 
of four children, viz., Louise (deceased), Will- 
iam, Samuel and Charles. Our subject at- 
tended school in the country and also three 
terms at the O. C. Seminary, Madison County, 
N. Y. He has always worked on a farm, save 
five years, during which he was employed in 
the Remington fire-arm manufacturing estab- 
lishment in New York. He was married in 
1S64, to Nettie Putnam, a daughter of Benja- 
min and Sophia (Myers) Putnam, who were the 
parents of the following children, viz., Oscar, 
Austin, Ellen. Gilbert, Helen, Charles B., 
Sophia, Louisa and Elizabeth. Mrs. Colwell's 
mother died in 1859, when she was quite a 
child. Mr. and Mrs. Colwell are the parents 



88 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



of four children, viz., Edward, Benjamin, Fan- 
nie and Carrie. He came, directly after his 
marriage, to Christian County, III., where he 
farmed two years, then returned to New York, 
and some time afterward, came again to Chris- 
tian County, where he remained till 1879, 
when he rented 261 acres, the present farm of 
his niece, Louisa Lesznsky, where he now re- 
sides. Mr. Colwell votes the Democratic ticket; 
he is now Pathmaster. His grandfathers, Col- 
well and Myers, were in the Revolutionary 
war. 

MRS. L. A. DODGE, Downer's Grove. Mrs. 
L. A. Dodge, the subject of this sketch, was 
born July 11, 1815, in Williamsville, X. Y. She 
is a daughter of George and Rosaunah (Knox) 
Hickman, natives of Wheeling, W. Va., and 
residents of New York soon after marriage, 
and to whom were given four children as 
pledges of their marriage vow, viz., Felding, 
Reuben, Lucy A. and Hiram. The former son 
was with " Commodore " Perry at the time 
when negotiations were opened up between 
Japan and the United States ; was lost or died 
while on a voyage. Mrs. D. attended school 
as much as was convenient in her younger 
days. She was married, in 1830, at the age of 
fifteen, to Horace, a son of Zebulou and Salome 
(Thayer) Dodge, natives of Massachusetts, and 
parents of twelve children, eleven of whom grew 
up, viz., Avis (Mrs. Blodgett), Charles Parker, 
(deceased), Parker, Horace, Harriett, Salome, 
Ezra, Caroline, Seva, Mariam and Hannah. 
Horace was born in 1802, in Belchertown, 
Mass. At marriage, Mrs. D. and her husband 
settled at Williamsville, where he worked in a 
plow shop. In two years they moved to Fre- 
donia, same State, he continuing the same 
avocation. In 1836, they came to Du Page 
County, 111., and settled on the farm which 
she now owns in Milton Township. At 
that time the country was a wild, raw prairie, 
inhabited by wild animals, with now and then 
a family. Here they experienced all the hard- 



ships that fell to the lot of early pioneers, such 
as going to church on horseback, milling and 
marketing with ox teams and truck wagons, 
and plowing with the old cast iron plow, which 
they brought from New York. Mr. D. hauled 
the logs to Warrenville on one of the above- 
described wagons, a distance of eight miles, 
from which lumber was made to construct their 
first house. Their building was near an old 
Indian camping-ground and these red men 
often pitched their tents near by. On one oc- 
casion Mrs. D. was alone, with three children, 
when one of the little fellows informed her of a 
large " crowd " of people approaching. She 
soon perceived them to be Indians, and gath- 
ered her babies and left the house to care for 
itself, retiring to a neighbor's, some distance to 
the south. The red men camped near the 
dwelling for several da3's and she returned to 
her home before they left. In their house were 
preached the first sermons in this part of the 
country. Revs. Beggs and Gaddis often held 
meetings here. Mr. and Mrs. D. had ten chil- 
dren, seven of whom grew up, viz., Sarah (Mrs. 
F. Irwin), Harriet (Mrs. Theodore Aldrich), 
Lucy (Mrs. Webster), Rosannah (Mrs. Bracken), 
Horace was in Company E, Eighth Illinois 
Cavalry; is a physician in Colorado; Julia 
(Mrs. E. Willard, of Joliet), and Bertha (Mrs. 
Stover); she and her husband are mission- 
aries in Southwest Africa, where they are ac- 
complishing a good that will only be known 
on that day when the secrets of all hearts shall 
be revealed. Mr. and Mrs. D. took every ad- 
vantage in their power to educate their chil- 
dren. After sending them a short time to the 
country, they hired teachers to instruct their 
children at their residence; they afterward sent 
them to graded schools, and each obtained a 
good education, five having taught school. 
Mrs. D. was robbed of her loving companion 
by death, August 31, 1881. She has 275 acres 
of well-improved land in Milton Township, a 
portion of their first pre-emption. In March, 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



91 



1840, her husband planted the apple seed from 
which their fine orchard has sprung. They 
brought many shrubs with them from New 
York, which, with their increase, adorn the 
landscape around. The beautiful maples that 
lie adjacent to her residence were planted there 
early by her husband,' who took them from 
Downer's Grove. Mrs. D. is an active member 
of the Baptist Church of Downer's Grove. 
She was a teacher of a Bible class for many 
years at York Center. A few months ago, she 
was thrown from a carriage and badly bruised 
about the face, but with her ever-enduring pa- 
tience, she has borne all, and has recovered- 
Now, being advanced in years, possessed of a 
competency of this world's goods, enjoying 
reasonably good health, she has retired from 
the toils and labors accompanying rural pur- 
suits, and is making her home in Hinsdale. 
We have only mentioned a few of the leading 
events that have made up the life of Mrs. D. 
and her companion, and to enlarge on what we 
have said would be unnecessary ; we will say, 
however, that she takes a deep interest in the 
benevolent enterprises of her neighborhood 
and her duty is her greatest pleasure, as was 
also her deceased consort. 

MRS. HANNAH DREHER, farmer, P. O. 
Lemont, Will County, widow of Israel Dreher, 
was born December 30, 1827, daughter of 
Andrew and Esther (Foust) Kimmel, who 
had twelve children — George, Hannah, Dan- 
iel, John, Hetty, Maria, Jacob, Andrew, 
Lewis, Sallie, and two deceased. The par- 
ents are both dead. Mrs. Dreher, our sub- 
ject, was married, December 12, 1846, to Is- 
rael Dreher, whose parents were Daniel and 
Mary M. (Huntsinger) Dreher, who, like his 
wife's parents, had twelve children. The old 
gentleman is dead, but the old lady, now 
over ninety years of age, is living in Penn- 
sylvania, hale and hearty for her great age. 
Mrs. Dreher bore her husband eight children, 



six of whom are living — Violet, Mrs. Fey; 
Elizabeth, Mrs. Steigerwalt; Silas K., in 
Iowa; Titus, married to Mary Oldfield, at 
home; Mary and Esther. July 12, 1870, 
Mr. Dreher died, and was buried at Naper- 
ville. Settled their farm in 1864. It con- 
sists of 120 acres, well improved. Albert 
Fey, the husband of Violet, and Frank Steig- 
erwalt, husband of Elizabeth, were in the 
late war in defense of the Union. 

JOHN W. DIXON, farmer, P. O. Down- 
er's Grove, was born March 25, 1843, in this 
county, where he has ever since resided. His 
parents, Robert and Mary E. (Wilson) Dixon, 
natives of Ireland, emigrated to New York 
in 1833, thence to this county in the same 
year. They had eight children, viz., Henry, 
James, Robert, Jane, Catharine, Charles, 
John W. and Mary. Subject's father was 
Justice of the Peace for many years; he was 
an Old-Line Abolitionist; four of his sons, 
Henry, James, Robert and Charles, fought for 
their country in the late civil war. He and 
his wife were members of the Methodist 
Church. Our subject received his education 
in the early schools of his native township. 
He was married, in 1868, to May L., daugh- 
ter of Emerson and Cynthia Osgood Gleason, 
natives of Massachusetts, and early settlers of 
this county; she was one of six children, viz., 
Watson, Stella, Emeroy, May, Ella and Eu- 
gene ; her parents were Baptists. From this 
union four children have been born, viz., 
Maude, Eugenia, May and Estella. He has 
100 acres of finely improved land, part of 
which he inherited, the remainder being ac- 
cumulated by his own labors. The build- 
ings cost about $2,500. He makes a special- 
ty of cattle, and is also engaged in the dairy 
business. He is an active member of the 
Methodist Church; his wife belongs to the 
Baptist Church. 



93 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



JAMES DREW, farmer, P. O. Cass, was 
born in England November 3, 1828, son of 
Thomas an I Rosamond (Jacobs) Drew, na- 
tives of England; the former came to Du 
Page County in 1853, and the latter in 1854. 
Six of their children are now living. The 
father died March 13, 1864, and is buried at 
Cass; the mother makes her home with the 
subject, James Drew. The latter, although 
a well-informed man, is entirely self-educat- 
ed, with the exception of some private in- 
struction rendered by Rev. Lyman. At ten 
years of age, Mr. Drew commenced for him- 
self. He attended to stock and engaged in 
numerous kinds of work until he became 
twenty years of age, when he came to Illinois 
in company with Mrs. Wells, then Mrs. 
Pitcher), Mr. Rooke and daughter Sarah, 
and Jonathan Clark. Mr. Drew was em- 
ployed on different farms until 1853, when 
he married Maria Rooke and settled on the 
farm of D. H. Naramore, where he remained 
until 18G7, when his wife died ; she had borne 
him eight children, of whom five are living — 
Rosamond, now Mrs. Loughlin, Jonathan, 
James, Anna and Arthur. He then went to 
Chicago and worked at carpentering until 
1870, when he married Mrs. Anna Palmer, 
born August 24, 1831, daughter of Robert 
and Martha Bean, natives of England. At 
this time, Mr. Drew settled on his present 
farm of 140 acres, which belonged to his 
wife. The result of this second union is two 
children, viz., Fannie M. and Thomas. Mr. 
and Mrs. Drew are prominent members of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church at Cass. 
He votes the Democratic ticket. Mrs. Wells, 
by her first husband, Thomas Palmer, had 
four children, of whom two are living — 
Harry B. and Annie E. 

AZEL DORATHY, Justice of the Peace, 
Hinsdale, was born October 19, 1822, in 
Pierrepont, St. Lawrence Co., N. Y. ; is a 



son of Joseph and Jerusha (Hatch) Dorathy, 
natives of Massachusetts, and the parents of 
eleven children, six of whom survive — Eu- 
nice, Mary, Charles, Jerusha, Lucinda, Azel. 
Mr. Dorathy attended school in the country, 
and for awhile in an academy. At the age 
of eighteen years, he began clerking at Pots- 
dam, N. Y., at from $12 to $25 per month, 
for about five years, when he engaged in gen- 
eral merchandising for himself at that vil- 
lage. In 1854, he entered the real estate 
business at Chicago, which he continued for 
twenty years, a part of the time with success, 
and also sustained some losses. In 1874, he 
had mostly retired, on account of ill health. 
Was married, in 1859, to Mariam Dewey, a 
native of Potsdam, N. Y., the result being 
one daughter, Kate, deceased; his wife is 
also deceased. In 1881, he was elected Po- 
lice Magistrate of Hinsdale, which position 
he still holds, and is distinguished as a very 
efficient officer. He is a stanch Republican. 
WILLIAM DAVEY, farmer, P. O. Le- 
mont, Cook County, was born in England 
March 7, 1825. His parents, John and 
Catharine (Pomplin) Davey, came to New 
York in 1855, thence to Downer's Grove in 
1858, where they farmed until 1868, when 
they went to Iowa, where his mother died 
September 13, 1881; his father still survives; 
their children were ten in number, seven 
living. Mr. Davey attended school in Eu- 
rope, and was a policeman two years in Lon- 
don. He came to New York in 1852, and 
worked on a farm at $130 per year. In 1857,' 
he came to Illinois and rented land of Ben- 
jamin Prentiss. He married, in 1858, Mary 
A. Dodge. Her parents, Sceva and Ruhama, 
came here single; her father died in 1870, 
and her mother in 1860; they had eleven 
children. Mr. and Mrs. Davey are the par- 
ents of nine children — Carrie B., who grad- 
uated at Downer's Grove High School, and 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



93 



is among the leading teachers of the county; 
Alice O, Mary E., George W., John S., Ed- 
ward, Charlie, Laura and Elvira. Mr. Davey 
has been School Director. He had three 
brothers in the late war, who returned unin- 
jured. He has twenty-three acres of tine 
timber, worth about $100 per acre, which has 
been made by his own labor; he is at present 
farming on John Oldfield's farm. Himself, 
wife and daughter, Carrie B. , are active mem- 
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church at 
Cass. 

A. F. FOSTER, retired mechanic and 
farmer, Downer's Grove, was born in Middle- 
town, Conn., October 17, 1815, son of Chancy 
and Sallie (Atkins) Foster, natives of Con- 
necticut, he born May 14, 1783, she Septem- 
ber 25, 1785. Chancy Foster, subject's fa- 
ther, served as private in the war of 1812. 
They had seven children — Eliza (deceased), 
Oliver, Giles (deceased), Sallie, A. F., Wal- 
ter and Lydia. At the age of fifteen, was 
bound apprentice to the carpenter's trade, 
and, after serving three years, went to Can- 
ada. In 1835, he came to TV ill County, 111. 
Married, on July 16, 1839, Nancy Adams, 
who has born him eight children — William, 
a farmer in Kendall County, 111. ; Ellen, 
married Edward Vial, living in Iowa; Emma, 
married Frank Miller; Eugene, married Ger- 
tie Bettles, lives in town; Albert, married 
Susie Bean, lives at Mt. Carroll, 111. ; Jonas, 
married Fannie Reynolds, living in Iowa; 
George, in Mt. Carroll, 111. ; and Harry, at 
home. Mrs. Foster is a daughter of Jonas 
and Olivia (Seeley) Adams; he, a native of 
Massachusetts, born April 8, 1777, was a 
Lieutenant in the war of 1812, now deceased; 
she, also deceased, was born in Vermont 
April 7, 1799; they were the parents of five 
children. Mr. Foster, after his marriage, 
settled in Plainfield, Will Co., 111.; in 1845, 
bought eighty acres of Government land, 



which he sold in 1849, and soon after bought 
some town lots in Downer's Grove, this 
.county, where he has since resided. He 
built the first Methodist Church in Downer's 
Grove, and was influential in raising sub- 
scriptions and keeping the church free from 
debt. He enlisted in Company B, One Hun- 
dred and Fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 
and was disabled at Frankfort. Himself and 
wife are members of the Methodist Church. 
He voted the Democratic ticket till the elec- 
tion of Lincoln, since which time he has been 
a supporter of the Republican party. 

JOHN FLEMING, farmer, P. O. Gower, 
was born in 1827, in Ireland, and is the son 
of Richard and Ann (Moran) Fleming, who 
came here in 1837 and settled in Will 
County, where the father worked on the Illi- 
nois & Michigan Canal. Subject's father 
died in 1837. His mother died in 1870, and 
was buried in the Catholic Cemetery at Cass. 
Mr. Fleming was able to obtain but little 
education. When quite young, he hired out 
at a few pennies per day. By frugality and 
industry, he and a brother were at last ena- 
bled to purchase some ox teams, with which 
they broke prairie for the public, and soon 
were able to purchase a home. December 26, 
1851, Mr. Fleming bought eighty acres of land 
of the Illinois & Michigan Canal Company. 
This he has added to until now he has 187 
acres of well-improved land, upon which he 
has erected buildings worth about $2,000. 
In 1853, he married Bridget Maloney, a 
daughter of Michael and Bridget Maloney, 
natives of Ireland, who were among the early 
settlers of this county. Mr. Maloney died 
many years ago, but Mrs. Fleming's mother 
is still living. Mr. and Mrs. Fleming have 
eight children — Ellen, Richard, James, John, 
ADn, Thomas, Bridget and Michael. The 
entire family are members of the Catholic 
Church. Mr. Fleming came to Du Page 



94 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



County May 10, 1842, since which time he 
has been engaged in farming. He is an ac- 
tive temperance man. 

THOMAS FLEMING, farmer, P. O. 
Gower, was born in Ireland February 1, 1801. 
His educational advantages were limited. 
He came to this country and settled in Illi- 
nois in 1837. He married Hannah Welch, 
and soon after settled on his present farm 
of 120 acres. Mr. and Mrs. Fleming have 
had twelve children, seven of whom are liv- 
ing; they are John, Elizabeth, Michael, Han- 
nah, James, Ellen and William. When Mr. 
Fleming first came to this county, he con- 
structed a log cabin, in which he lived, and 
was obliged to bring the necessaries of life 
from Chicago with ox teams. He worked on 
the Erie Canal for a short time, also on the 
Illinois & Michigan Canal. He now has a 
fine home as a result of his hard labor. 

VICTOR FREDENHAGEN, fanner, P. 
O. Downer's Grove, was born June 11, 1832, 
in Mecklenburg, Germany; is a son of Victor 
and Paulina (Jurgens) Fredenhagen, who 
came toDu Page County, 111., in 1855. Our 
subject received his early education, at his 
father's house, a Professor being employed 
by the father. In 1843, subject entered col- 
lege; after five years, he graduated, and en- 
gaged on a farm of 1,200 acres, where for 
three years he was " sub-boss, " and where he 
learned farming in a scientific manner. He 
then remained with his father until 1851, 
when he, in company with E. Napp, came to 
Cleveland, Ohio, where they worked at farm- 
ing until 1852, when Mr. Fredenhagen made 
a prospective trip through Illinois and Iowa, 
which resulted in his coming, with Daniel 
Cook, to Du Page County, 111. Here they 
rented a farm, which our subject soon had 
entire charge of. In the fall of 1853, he 
bought 480 acres of land, with money fur- 
nished by his father; to this the latter after- 



ward added 160 acres. In 1855, our subject 
married Mary Lambe, a daughter oE William 
and Mary Lambe, and soon after settled on 
the present farm of 324 acres, upon which 
Mr. Fredenhagen had previously erected a 
fine residence. They have seven children — 
Sophia (Mrs. Cawley), Victor, Edward A. (en- 
gaged with the Hill Standard Book Com- 
pany), Paulina, Augusta, Martin and Frank. 
From 1857 to 1872, our subject was engaged 
with other parties in the millinery business 
at Warrenville. He has been Supervisor, 
and was one term, in 1875, a member of the 
General Assembly of this State. He is at the 
present time Township Trustee, and a mem- 
ber of Hinsdale Lodge, No. 649, A, F. & A. 
M. He and family are Lutherans. He is a 
Democrat. 

S. H FISH, inventor, Hinsdale, was born 
May 13, 1854, in Jefferson County, N. Y.; is 
a son of Edward and Jane (Barber) Fish, the 
former a native of Windham County, Vt., and 
the latter of Franklin County, Mass., she be- 
ing born December 18, 1815. The parents 
settled, at marriage, in Windham County, 
Vt. , where they had four children, two of 
whom survive, viz., Mary J., Mrs. Gilbert 
Pierce, sewing machine agent, Boston, 
Mass.; and S. H, our subject. The father 
was a farmer and merchant in Boston, and 
died April 25, 1857; was a Methodist, to 
which denomination his consort now belongs. 
The mother came to this county in 1874, and 
is keeping house for her son, who has never 
married. Mr. Fish bought a lot and built on 
the same in Clarendon Hills in 1873. From 
childhood his active mind has been engaged 
on the subject of machinery, and he has 
already completed some valuable inventions. 
He is now just finishing a potato-planter, the 
efforts of three years' active labor. The me- 
chanical arrangement of this wonderful in- 
vention is complicated yet simple, and is the 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



95 



only complete planter in tbe world. Mr. Fish 
is very sanguine as to its success, and has 
several of the leading men of Chicago inter- 
ested in its completion. Success is certain, 
and, when once put. into actual use, will be 
a fortune to the inventor. 

FOX BROTHERS, merchants, Hinsdale. 
Charles, the senior member of this hrm, was 
born in Vermont May 14, 1837; attended 
school in the country, and one term at 
Wheaton, and at the age of twenty he took 
the contract of carrying the mail from Brash 
Hill to Summit, Cook County, for $200 per 
year, making two trips each week. He then 
bought the stock and crop on a farm near 
Summit; afterward ran a hotel for nearly a 
year; was burnt out, and then engaged, in 
1864, in the general merchandise business at 
Brush Hills (now Fullersburg) on his own 
account two years, then took in as partner Ben- 
jamin Fuller, who, after a year, withdrew, 
Hermon, Jr. , member of the present firm, tak- 
ing his place. On August 17, 1875, they 
sold their building, and transferred their 
stock to Hinsdale, building at that time 
their present fine brick store, where they have 
since continued in business, keeping a gen- 
eral line of dry goods, notions, groceries, 
hardware, drugs, boots, shoes, etc. Charles 
was married, in 1861, on the day Lincoln was 
inaugurated, to Miss Betsey E., daughter of 
Benjamin Fuller; they have had three chil- 
dren, viz., William A., Eva T. and Delner 
E. (deceased). He has been Township Clerk 
and Constable eight years; is a member of 
Hinsdale Lodge, No. 649, A, F. & A. M., 
and votes the Republican ticket. Hermon 
M., the junior member, was born in Vermont 
in 1843, son of Marvin and Amy Fox, natives 
of New York, and parents of ten children, 
five living. Hermon M. attended the common 
schools, and also one year at Manchester, Vt. 
When twenty-one years old, he enlisted in 



Company L, Second Light Artillery Regi- 
ment, and served about one year. He taught 
school one winter, and then engaged with 
his brother in business. Married, Septem- 
ber 15, 1870, Phcebe, daughter of Lyman and 
Phcebe Babcock, natives of Ohio; the latter 
died when Mrs Fox was an infant. Mr. 
and Mrs. Fox are the parents of three chil- 
dren, one deceased— Estella H., Marvin and 
Edith E. (deceased). He votes the Repub- 
lican ticket. The parents of our subject are 
living in Hinsdale, at a ripe old age. 

ALMERON FORD, merchant, Fullers- 
burg, is a native of Oneida County, N. Y. , 
born November 4, 1829, son of Orrin and 
Sally (Jones) Ford, natives of New York, and 
parents of five children — Frances. Almeron, 
Levi, Libbeus and Sarah E. (Mrs. Wylie). 
Orrin was born October 5, 1801, and died 
July 4, 1869; his wife was born December 
9, 1805, and died July 17, 1856. Almeron 
attended the country schools, and also one 
term at an academy, and at the age of twenty- 
one began clerking in a country store, 
working for his board six months, afterward 
receiving $4 per month, and, after working 
six months at that rate, came to Chicago, 
arriving there with only $1.30 in his pocket. 
He left Chicago and went to Aurora, 111., 
where he found his old employer, with whom 
he started for Iowa. His employer, however, 
bought land near Shabbona Grove, De Kalb 
Co., Ill, and Mr. Ford hired with him to 
work on the farm. He afterward engaged as 
clerk in the store of Mr. Sutherland, in Kan- 
kakee, 111, where he remained four years, 
after which he bought 160 acres of raw prai- 
rie land, which, after farming two years, he 
sold. He then bought out W alter Vanvelzer, 
a merchant of Fullersburg, where he has 
since carried on business, doing a good trade 
in dry goods, notions, groceries, boots and 
shoes, etc., his being the only store in the 



96 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



place save one. He was married, in Kanka- 
kee, November 4, 1857, to Angeline Fuller, 
born in New York May 2. 1834; they have 
four children — Frank A., Leona B., Carrie 
B. and Arthur M. Mr. Ford has been Su- 
pervisor, Justice of the Peace and School 
Director; is now, and has been for some time, 
Notary Public. He has good property on 
Lots 2 and 3 in this village, a lot at Western 
Springs, and four acres of timber in York 
Township, this county. He is a Democrat. 
J. R. FINCH, real estate, Hinsdale, was 
born in Sussex County, N. Y., March 16, 
1820, son of John and Elizabethj(Crampton) 
Finch, natives of New Jersey. John Finch 
was of German and French descent, and 
served in the war of 1812; he died at the age 
of eighty-eight ; his wife was of English 
and Irish descent; they had eight children. 
J. R. received a limited education in his na- 
tive State, and was apprenticed to the car- 
penter's trade. At twenty-two years of age, 
he engaged as solicitor and peddler for 
Wheeler, France & Madden, a hardware and 
tinware firm, in whose employ he remained 
four years. In 1842, he married Maria M. 
Vliet, of Warren County, N. Y., who has 
borne him six children; those living are J. 
Warren, a stock farmer in Nebraska; Joseph 
R., a stock farmer in Smith County, Kan.; 
Emma A., Mrs. William Gillett; and Em- 
manuel C, at home. Mr. Finch engaged in 
mercantile business for a time, and afterward, 
with his wife and two children, went to Mil- 
ton, Rock Co., Wis., and bought foity acres of 
land, which, after eleven months, he sold at 
a profit of $300, which he invested in land 
warrants, and has since dealt in real estate. 
He located 300 acres in Wisconsin, which he 
exchanged for a hardware stock in Evansville, 
Wis., which he sold, and invested the pro- 
ceeds in land in Virginia, on which was after- 
ward built the town of Finehville. He has 



dealt in property in Washington, Philadel- 
phia and Chicago, and now owns property to 
the amount of $60,000 or $70,000. He sus- 
tained but two actual losses in the whole 
course of his extensive transactions. He 
now resides in Hinsdale. His wife is a Meth- 
odist. He is a member of the A., F. & A. M. 

WESLEY FELL, farmer, P. O. Gower, was 
born iu Cass, this county, October 24, 1861 ; 
son of JoHhua and Emeline (Hewitt) Fell. 
His mother was born February 22, 1830, 
and is the daughter of Orsemus and Ida 
(Spaulding) Hewitt, natives of Ohio; she was 
one of nine children, six of whom are living. 
Mrs. Fell's mother was a school-teacher in 
her younger days, and attained her knowl- 
edge of arithmetic by ciphering on birch 
bark. She was also a very popular nurse 
among the sick. The grandfather, Spauld- 
ing, was a teacher of vocal music. The 
father of our subject is a brother of Mrs. 
Elijah Smart, wife of Elijah Smart, whose 
sketch is in this work. Mrs. Fell had, by her 
marriage with Joshua Fell, nine children, 
five of whom are living, viz., Alson, who is 
married to Susan Bonner, and is a farmer 
in Jasper County, Ind. ; Anna; Carrie; Ed- 
gar, who is with his brother in Indiana; and 
Wesley, our subject, who attends to the old 
homestead. The farm now consists of eighty 
acres of well-improved land. The boys are 
as energetic a class of young men as can be 
found, and are fast accumulating means. 
Mrs. Fell, the mother of Wesley Fell, io a 
faithful member of the Methodist Church, in 
which denomination the children are deeply 
interested. 

GEORGE FRENCH, blacksmith, Hins- 
dale, was born in Denmark June 21, 1844, 
son of George H. and Helena French, who 
had six children — Christ, Peter, Nelson, Han- 
nah, Christina and George H. Mr. French 
attended school eight months in each year 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



97 



until he was sixteen years old, when he be- 
gan learning the blacksmith's trade. He 
came to Du Page County in 1872, engaging 
on a farm in order to learn the English lan- 
guage. In 1875, he worked at his trade in 
Chicago, where he continued two years, and 
has since been doing a fine business here, 
making horseshoeing a specialty. He was 
married, in 1873, to Mary Hanson, a native 
of Denmark, and by her has one child, Hel- 
ena. He has two houses and lots in this 
place, worth about $3,000, the result of his 
own labors. Is a member of A. O. U. W. 
He attends the Congregational Church, and 
is one of our leading citizens. He is a Re- 
publican. 

GIFFORD & BURTT, butchers, Hinsdale. 
Prominently identified among the leading 
firms of Hinsdale is that of Gifford & Burtt. 
Mr. J. A. Gifford, the senior member of the 
firm, was born September 24, 1834, in Benning- 
ton County, Vt., son of Ora and Olivia (Turner) 
Gifford, and was one of eight children — Ly- 
man H, Samuel L., J. A., Lewis E., Sarah 
A . Lizzie H. and two deceased. Mr. Gifford 
attended school in the country and one term 
in a select school. In 1862, came to Brush 
Hills, Du Page County, where he engaged in 
farming and teaming. In 1868, began a 
meat market at Hinsdale, continuing about 
five years, and then entered a general store 
under the firm name of J. A. & Lewis E. 
Gifford. The latter was Postmaster. In 
1873, Lewis E. died, and the business was 
closed. In 1877, our subject went into the 
meat market with C. A. Walker, who with- 
drew January 1, 1881, at which time E. A. 
Burtt, the junior member of the firm, stepped 
in. These gentlemen are doing a first-class 
business, merited by their own personal at- 
tention. Mr. G. has never been married, and, 
with his siBter, makes his home in an elegant 
little cottage in this place. He votes the 



Democratic ticket. Mr. E. A. Burtt, the jun- 
ior member, was born April 28, 1834, in 
New Hampshire; eon of Benjamin and Lucy 
(Wilson) Burtt, the former a native of Mas- 
sachusetts and the latter of New Hampshire. 
They were the parents of three children, 
viz., E. A., G. H. and Frederick, the latter 
dying when two years old. The father was 
a miller the most of his life. The parents 
were Congregationalists. E. A. attended 
school long enough to obtain a good business 
education. At the age of fourteen, he began 
learning the carpenter's trade, which he con- 
tinued until he was twenty-one years old, at 
which period he engaged for a lumber firm, 
at Potsdam, N. Y. In 1861, he withdrew 
from that business, and enlisted in Company 
E, New Hampshire Volunteer Sharp Shoot- 
ers, where he remained till 1862; he became 
disabled at that time by a wagon running 
over his ankle, but, as soon as able, he en- 
gaged as baggage master, brakeman and fore- 
man of the track-laying of the Concord & 
Portsmouth Railroad. In 1871, he came to 
Hinsdale and farmed a short time with his 
brother, afterward working in Ohio. In two 
years, he returned to Hinsdale and engaged 
in butchering, until 1880, at which time he 
entered the partnership as mentioned above, 
and with Mr. Gifford he makes his home, 
having never married. He votes the Demo- 
cratic ticket. 

EDWARD GOODNOUGH, retired farmer. 
P. O. Downer's Grove, was born in Vermont 
August 9, 1803; son of Liberty and Susan 
nah (Barney) Goodnough, natives of Vermont 
and parents of eleven children, of whom two 
are living, viz., Edward (subject) and Ira. 
Subject attended one of the log-cabin school- 
houses of that day, during three months of 
the year, and worked on the farm. In 1843, 
he came to Downer's Grove, bought 110 acres 
of land, which he farmed until 1867. when 



98 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



he sold out and removed to the village of 
Downer's Grove, where he lives retired from 
active business life. He married, in 1825, 
Lura A. Harmon, who has borne him three 
children, all living, viz., Harmon, Antoinette 
(married Mr. Trumbull, and they have one 
child — Florence, an efficient school teacher), 
and Ann Eliza, now Mrs. Alf Nixon, of Austin, 
111. Mrs. Goodnough is a daughter of David 
and Adelia (Overton) Harmon, who were the 
parents of eleven children, all living, the 
eldest being over eighty, the youngest over 
sixty-one years; they are as follows: David, 
Samuel, Lura A. (Mrs. Goodnough), Eliza, 
Lydia, Chauncey, Joseph, Mary, Franklin, 
Nancy and Joel. Eliza Harmon, Mrs. Good- 
nough's sister, married Ira Persons; came to 
Downer's Grove in 1865; they had two sons 
— Edwin and Chauncey, the former killed at 
the battle of Gettysburg, the latter at Bull 
Run. Liberty Goodnough, subject's father, 
was in the war of 1812. Mr. Goodnough and 
wife have long been members of the Baptist 
Church. 

J. R. HAGGARD, physician and surgeon. 
Downer's Grove, was born in Clark County, 
Ky., October 29, 1839. His parents, David 
J. and Sarah A. (Edmonson) Haggard, are 
natives of the same State; they had four 
children — J. R. ; Sarah, married to James 
Shaw, farmer in Nebraska; Z. W. and George 
T., farmers in Nebraska. 1'he parents are liv - 
ing in Nebraska. The Doctor came with his 
father's family to Scott County, III., in 1840. 
He took an academic course at Winchester, 
this State, and then entered the popular 
school at North Prairie. In August, 1862, 
he enlisted in Company D, One Hundred and 
Twenty ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 
and remained until the close of the war; was 
a private, and afterward Hospital Steward. 
He began reading medicine in Scott County 
with Drs. Skilling and Brengle. He was 



wounded in the left hip at Kennesaw Mount- 
ain. On his return from the war, he resumed 
his studies; was elected County Superintend- 
ent, which position he took in 1865. At- 
tended lectures at Ann Arbor, Mich., and 
Rush Medical College, Chicago, graduating 
from the latter institution in 1868. He be- 
gan practice at Winchester. 111., the season 
before he graduated, and was selected as 
County Physician for Scott County. In 1869, 
he located in Knox County, where he met 
with good success, and, in 1870, came to 
Downer's Grove, where he has since remained. 
In 1877, he was elected County Superin- 
tendent, which jiosition he filled with credit 
for four years. In Winchester, Scott Co., 
111., September 24, 1867, he married Fannie 
H. Avery, a native of that county, born Octo- 
ber 3, 1846. daughter of Daniel and Eliza- 
beth (Haxby) Avery, he a native of New 
York, born March 19, 1819, died iu 1866; 
she, a native of England, still living, was 
born in April. 1825. Mr. and Mrs. Haggard 
have been blessed with four children — Laura 
A., born November 1, 1868; David A., born 
June 9, 1870; Robert C. born June 23, 1874; 
and Ralph Waldo, born August 18, 1876. 
The Doctor is a member of Winchester Lodge, 
No. 105, A., F. & A. M. 

CHAUNCEY HARMON, retired mechanic. 
Downer's Grove, is a native of Oswego County, 
N. Y., born April 1, 1813; son of David and 
Delia (Overton) Harmon, he a native of Con- 
necticut, born January 20, 1772, died in 
Jefferson County, N. Y., August 7, 1859, 
where his wife, born March 18, 1782, who was a 
native of Long Island, also died, July 2, 1841 ; 
they were the parents of eleven children, all 
living; the eldest being over eighty years, the 
youngest over sixty-two years of age, named as 
follows: David, Samuel, Lura, Ann Eliza, 
Lydia, O J., Chauncey, Joseph W. , Mary, Ben- 
jamin and Nancy J. Chauncey attended a pri- 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP 



09 



vate school in Massachusetts for a year, and, 
while quite young, went on a whaling voyage 
to the Indian Ocean. He afterward engaged in 
railroading on the Richmond, Fredericksburg 
& Potomac Railroad as an engineer, having 
learned to run an engine while in a machine 
shop, and, after being on that road about two 
years, transferred to the Great South Carolina 
Railroad, from Charleston to Augusta, and, af- 
ter one season, engaged on the Alabama, Mem- 
phis & Charleston Railroad for nine years. 
He then traveled for about four years, and, in 
1842, located in Downer's Grove and engaged 
in carpentering, building houses, railroad 
bridges, etc. He married, November 6, 1850, 
Mary L. Rogers, sister of J. W. and Capt. 
Rogers, of this place, and from this union 
two children have been born — Isabel A., wife 
of J. W. Tucker, of Aurora, and Velonia, 
wife of E. H. Andrews, corresponding clerk 
of the Northwestern Bank, Chicago. Mrs. 
Andrews is engaged in the millinery business 
in this place, and has a large patronage. 
Mr. Harmon is a Republican; his parents were 
active members of the Baptist Church. 

J. HULANISKI, real estate and building 
material dealer, Hinsdale, was born in 1839, 
in Chicago, and is the son of Julian and Mar- 
cia (Tuttle) Hulaniski, the former a native of 
Poland, and the latter of New York State. 
The father graduated at the Warsaw Poland 
University; was a Colonel in the battle of 
Warsaw in 1833, soon after which engage- 
ment he was banished to this country, thus 
being robbed of a vast fortune. Upon arriv- 
ing in this country, he engaged in civil en- 
gineering in New York State; he was also at 
one time Professor of Languages at the Uni- 
versity of Richmond in Virginia. After this, 
he was engaged in civil engineering in Keo 
kuk, Iowa, where he was living with his fam- 
ily at the time of his death, in 1855; he had 
seven children, five of whom are living, viz., 



Julian, Polonia, Thaddeus, Edmund and 
Frederick. Our subject obtained a good 
business and literary education at Keokuk, 
Iowa, where he spent a portion of his younger 
days in civil engineering with his father. In 
1861, subject entered the Chicago Post Office, 
where he remained two years under P. M. 
Scrips. In 1863, he became chief clerk of 
the general freight department at the Canal 
depot of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 
Railroad in Chicago, which position he held 
ten years. From this time, he held various 
positions in railroading, until June 1, 1882, 
when he withdrew, and, August 1, started his 
present business at Hinsdale. He is doing 
some building, as well as dealing in lime, 
cement, brick, lumber and real estate. In 
1861, he married Miss Fannie Hugunin. by 
whom he has one child — Dora, who keeps 
house for him, her mother having died in 
1871. In 1869, Mr. Hulaniski bought his 
present property and erected buildings at 
Hinsdale, where he is one of the Village Trust- 
ees. His daughter is a Congregational ist; 
he is a Unitarian, and a member of the Board 
of Village Trustees. 

WILLIAM J. HEA.RTT, farmer, P. O. 
Downer's Grove, was born December 2, 1812, 
in New York State; is the son of Daniel and 
Jane (Calander) Heartt, who came to Illinois 
in 1838. In 1845, the family moved to this 
township, and bought 120 acres of land, 
known as the " Covely farm;" here they re- 
mained but a few years, when they returned 
to Chicago. There, subject's father, who 
had been Deputy Sheriff and Constable many 
years, died. Subject's mother is still hale 
and hearty at the age of ninety-three. Will- 
iam attended school until fourteen years of 
age, when he began working in a harness shop 
in Massachusetts, he having partly learned 
that trade with his father. Here he remained 
until 1837, when he came to Pike County, 



100 



BIOGRAPHICAL 



111., where he built a harness shop of his 
own. In J 840, he located in Chicago, where 
he ran a " stage wagon," carrying passengers 
to different parts of the country. Here he 
remained two years, when he located on a 
farm in this county. Two years later, he 
bought 133 acres of land, a part of his pres- 
ert well-improved farm of 180 acres. In 
1839, Mr. Heartt married Susan B. Roberts, 
daughter of John and Sallie (Davis) Roberts, 
natives of New Hampshire, who settled in 
Canada, where Mrs. Heartt was born in 1821. 
Her parents came to Pike County, 111., in 

1836. They both died in 1874, were promi- 
nent Methodists, he being a class leader forty 
years. Mr. and Mrs. Heartt have thirteen 
children — George B., Mary J., Edwin, Em- 
ma, John, Jerusha, Smith, Sarah, Emily, 
Chester, Rolla, Frank and Ira. George and 
Edwin served during the late war, the former 
in Company B, Thirty-third Illinois Volun- 
teer Infantry, the latter in the Seventeenth 
Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. Mr. Heartt is 
one of the early pioneers. On his farm 
stands a cabin, 10x12, which was the first 
schoolhouse in this neighborhood. Mr. and 
Mrs. H. are members of the M. E. Church, 
of which Mr. H. is a Trustee. 

GEORGE HOFFMIRE, farmer, P. O. 
Lemont, Cook County, was born March 5, 
1807, in Germany, son of L. and Mary (Brin- 
kle) Hoftmire, who were the parents of six 
children — Joseph, George, Leonard, Mary, 
Abbie and Julia. Our subject attended 
school very little, but has managed to acquire 
sufficient education to fit him for the transac- 
tion of all necessary business, and has that 
which is ofttimes more valuable to a man 
than "book larnin" — common sense. In 

1837, he was married to Susan Hoffman, and 
has five children — Abbie, Vila, John, Nick 
and Charlie; they came to Illinois in 1837, 
when he worked by the day at any kind of 



labor on farms. In 1875, he bought 112 
acres, his present farm in Will County, 
which is highly improved. Himself and 
wife are members of the German Church at 
Lemont. 

WENDEL HIX, butcher, Hinsdale, was 
born June 9, 1832, in Germany; is a son of 
John and Barbara (Raerich) Hix, natives of 
Germany; she came here in 1863, and died 
at the home of our subject; he died in his 
native country. Mr. Hix is one of ten chil- 
dren, three of whom are living. After at- 
tending school eight years in his native 
country, our subject was engaged in farming 
and butchering. He came to New York in 
1852, and remained there till 1854, when he 
opened a butcher shop in Naperville, Du 
Page County. Here he remained until 1880, 
when he began the business at Hinsdale, 
since following the same, having a large 
patronage at the present time. He has been 
engaged in this business all his life, and but 
few are as well posted in the same as he. In 
1855, he was married to Josephine Loos, a 
native of France. She bore him eight chil- 
dren, all of whom survive. They are Richard, 
Louisa, France, Peter, John, Mary, Willie 
and Josephine. His consort died in 1877, 
and, in 1880, he married Mrs. Caroline Ditz, 
who had been a resident of Hinsdale since 
1S70. She came to this country in 1857, and 
settled in Chicago, where her former husband 
was engaged in a planing mill. Mrs. Hix is 
a member of the Lutheran Church. Mr. 
Hix is a Catholic, and votes the Democratic 
ticket. 

MITCHELL HEINTZ, harness, Downer's 
Grove, was born January 5, 1842, in France, 
now a portion of the German Empire, son of 
Mitchell and Catharine Heintz, who were 
the parents of nine children, all living — 
Catharine, George, Ellen, Mitchell, Mary, 
Sarah, Frederick, Christian and Charles. 



DOWN Kli'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



101 



The whole family came to this country in 
1851, landing at New Orleans, whence they 
came to Chicago and from there to Naper- 
ville, where they rented land for two years, 
and then bought forty acres in Downer's 
Grove Township. The father and mother 
died within one year of each other. Our 
subject was educated in the schools of this 
county, and began farming. In 1861, he 
enlisted for the three months service, in the 
Thirteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, but 
remained two years. Was wounded at Vicks- 
burg by a shell, from which he lost an arm. 
In 1871, he was married to Catharine Mich- 
el, who has borne four children, only one of 
whom is living — William Fred. Mr. Heintz 
went into the manufacture of harness at 
Downer's Grove with George E. Downer, 
and is doing a good business. He also has 
a farm of eighty acres, well improved, also 
honse and lot in Downer's Grove. Him- 
self and wife are members of the Lutheran 
Church, and he is a Republican. Mrs. 
Heintz' s parents were natives of Germany; 
they had live children — Thomas, Catharine, 
Julia, Mary, and Eva (dead). They were 
also Lutherans. 

HENRY HOGREFE, farmer, P. O. Gow- 
er. was born in Germany in 1841, and is a 
son of Frederick and Mary Hogrefe, the lat- 
ter dying when the subject was quite small. 
The father lives in this county with his chil- 
dren When thirteen years of age, our sub- 
ject came to America with his father, and for 
two years lived with his uncle Bermen. He 
then commenced work for Mr. Mendel (his 
present brother-in-law), where he remained 
ten years. In 1872, he settled on his present 
farm of 160 acres. In 1863, he married 
Mena Hasamier, by whom he has six chil- 
dren, viz., Willie, Henry, Louise, Sophia, 
Jacob and Emma. Subject and wife are 
Lutherans. He has been School Director. 



JACOB JEANS, farmer, P. O. Gower, 
was born in England July 31, 1821; is the 
son of Charles and Keziah (Williams) Jeans, 
natives of England, and Episcopalians. Our 
subject closed his school days when twelve 
years old, and commenced to work in the 
blacksmith shop with his father; he also 
learned the shoemaker's trade. He came to 
Illinois in 1847 with Judge Morey, Henry 
Dike and others. The company landed in 
Chicago, and our subject began working for 
a commission merchant. In 1848, Mr. Jeans 
was married to Mary Coan, and settled at 
North Branch, sixteen miles from Chicago, 
where they rented land for two years, after- 
ward renting at Romer. In 1852, our sub- 
ject bought eighty acres of land, a part of the 
100| acres of fine land upon which he now 
lives. Mr. and Mrs. Jeans have had seven 
children, five living — Mary A., Harriet, Cath- 
arine, William C. and Jacob T. Mr. Jeans 
has plowed with the ox team, and experi- 
enced all the hardships of pioneer life. 
About nineteen years ago, he lost his health, 
and has since been an invalid. Notwithstand- 
ing this, he takes a deep interest in general 
improvements, literary productions, etc. 

MRS. A. P. KENNEDY, Hinsdale, was 
born in Tompkins County, N. Y., November 
11, 1833, daughter of John and Mary A. 
(Slater) Sears, he a native of Connecticut 
and she of New York; her parents settled in 
Lake County, 111., in 1845, where her father 
had purchased land in 1840. with the view 
of getting his sons interested in rural life, 
yet they all sought other occupations; her 
father graduated at college and early began 
labor as a minister of the Baptist Church, 
which he continued until his death, in Iowa, 
at the age of sixty-one. Almost immediately 
after marriage, he and his wife were sent to 
Fort Wayne, Ind., as missionaries among the 
Indians. The father of Mr. Sears was also 



102 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



a minister, and for a time assisted his son at 
Fort Wayne, after which he returned to Ohio 
and died there. The mother of our subject 
survived her husband several years; after 
selling the old homestead, she located in De- 
troit, Mich., where she died at the age of 
seventy-one. Their union resulted in eight 
children, as follows: Eliza, Olivia, Anna, J. 
J. (deceased), Lucy, Harriet, Sarah and Asa. 
Mrs. Kennedy was married in 1866 to A. P. 
Kennedy, of Saratoga County, N. Y. ; he was 
born in 1814 and was the son of Lanson and 
Electa (Kellogg) Kennedy. Subject's hus- 
band was an early settler of De Kalb County, 
having come there in 1840; was a member of 
the First Congregational Church of Chicago. 
May 2, 1881, while the family were residing 
at Downer's Grove, Mr. Kennedy fell into a 
well and was drowned. Mrs. Kennedy has 
four children — Lina, Asa S., Grace and Carl 
S. ; she now resides in a beautiful residence 
in this village, possessed of an abundance of 
this world's goods, sufficient for the comfort 
and happiness of herself and children through 
life. 

VALENTINE KLINE, farmer, P. O. 
Gower, was born in Germany in 1815, and 
is a son of Valentine and Mai-garet Kline, 
residents of Germany. Subject attended 
school until fourteen years of age, when he 
commenced to work at farming, which he 
continued until 1845, when he emigrated to 
this country. Soon after landing, he was 
married, in Buffalo, N. Y., to Sallie Shupp, 
who came over in the same vessel with sub- 
ject. Soon after marriage, they settled in 
Du Page County, where they worked by the 
month until 1846, when they purchased 
eighty acres of land. This has been added 
to until now Mr. Kline has 120 acres of well- 
improved land, the result of his own labor. 
In connection with his. farming, he raises a 
good many tine cattle. Mr. and Mrs. Kline 



are the parents of four children, viz., Sally, 
Mrs. Jacob Lehman; Frederick; Magdalena, 
Mrs. Lawrence Vix, living in Nebraska, and 
Catharine. They are all members of the 
Lutheran Church. Mr. Kline is a Republi- 
can. 

DAVID KLINE, merchant, Downer's 
Grove, was born May 20, 1838, in Alsace, 
France (now Germany), son of David and 
Catharine (Wickersham) Kline, natives of 
Europe. David Kline, subject's farmer, emi- 
grated with his family to America and settled 
in this county in 1853, where he bought 125 
acres of land; he died in 1871, his wife in 
1853; they were the parents of nine children. 
Subject received an ordinary education, and 
worked on the farm till 1863, when he en- 
listed in Company C, Sixty-fourth Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry, and served about two 
years, participating in the battles of the 
campaign from Dallas. Ga., to Atlanta, Ga. ; 
in the battle at the latter place, July 22, 
1864, he lost his left leg, which was taken off 
above the knee. He engaged in the grocery 
business in 1868; afterward took J. W. La- 
selle in partnership for four years; then with- 
drew for about two years and Lasalle moving 
the goods, Mr. Kline put in a full line of 
goods in his present building; he carries a 
general stock and does a good trade. He 
married, in 1875, Miss Lena Heintz, who 
has borne him three children, viz., Edwin, 
Albert and George, he also had by a former 
marriage one child — Rosa. He has filled the 
office of Trustee; he is a Republican; polled 
his first vote for Lincoln. Mr. Kline attends 
strictly to business himself; is a pleasant, 
genial gentleman, and enjoys the confidence 
of all; he and his wife are members of the 
Lutheran Church. 

KLINE BROTHERS, farmers, P. O. 

Downer's Grove. John and Mathias Kline 

ar among the leading farmers of this town- 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



103 



ship; they are the sons of David arid Catha- 
rine (Wickersham) Kline, natives of Alsace, 
C4ermany; they came here in 1854, settling 
where the subjects now live; here the father 
died in 1870, the mother having died with 
cholera at Chicago just before the family came 
to this county; the parents were Lutherans 
and had twelve children, nine of whom grew 
up, viz., Catharine (Mrs. Shuster), Mary (Mr3. 
Storm), David, Jacob, John, Mathias, Sarah 
and Caroline. The subjects of this biogra- 
phy have never married, and their two 
youngest sisters are keeping house for them. 
They are making a specialty of Durham cattle 
on their elegant little farm; they vote the 
Republican ticket. 

WILLIAM C. KESSER, farmer, Lemont, 
Cook County, was born December 18, 1847, 
in Blair County, Penn., son of Valentine and 
Martha (Brower) Kesser, natives of Germany, 
who came to America in 1842, and settled in 
Pennsylvania, but afterward removed to Lock- 
port, Will County; they had eight children, 
six of whom are living — William, Sarah, 
Martha, Alice, Emma and Sylvester. The 
father is dead, but the mother is living with 
subject. Mr. Kesser has always followed 
farming, with the exception of one year, 
which he spent as a traveling salesman for a 
Cincinnati tobacco house; he is unmarried, 
and lives with his mother and sister Emma; 
they have fifty-five acres of land in Will 
County, and twenty- eight acres of timber at 
another point; makes some specialty in rais- 
ing Clydesdale stock. His father was a shoe- 
maker, and had a Bhop on the farm. The 
family have acquired their property since 
they came here, and are industrious and fru- 
gal. 

HENRY M. LYMAN, farmer, P. O. Dow- 
ner's Grove, was born in Vernon, Oneida Co. , 
N. Y, October 27, 1821, and is a son of 
Orange and Marcia (Dewey) Lyman. Orange 



Lyman was born in New Hartford, Litchfield 
Co., Conn., July 26, 1781; died at Downer's 
Grove July 16, 1851, and was buried at Na- 
perville; his wife was born in Sheffield, Mass., 
April 30, 1796, died in Iowa January y, 
1873. Mr. Lyman removed with his parents 
to Chicago in 1838, and, the following year, 
came to Downer's Grove Township. He at- 
tended school in Ohio, in which State his 
parents lived for several years, and, at the 
age of seventeen, began teaching school in 
Will County, 111., Judge Williams, of Chi- 
cago, being one of his pupils. In Painesville, 
Lake Co., Ohio, September 18, 1850, he mar- 
sied Lovancia Pease, born in Madison, Ohio, 
December 23, 1821, daughter of George and 
Lucinda (Campbell) Pease, natives of Con- 
necticut and parents of six children, viz., 
Lovern, Lovancia, Carlos C, Lauren S., 
Sarah B. and Granville W. Mrs. L's mother 
was a distant relative of the poet Campbell. 
She was educated at Oberlin College, and 
taught school for several terms in Lake 
County, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Lyman are the 
parents of two children: Sarah Estella and 
.Walter Campbell. Oar subject has 265 ares 
of well-improved land, on which he makes u 
specialty of raising Durham cattle; he brought 
his stock here over thirty years ago; he was 
one of the first Road Commissioners of this 
township, the most of the early records of 
which were written by him; he was chosen 
Foreman, by Judge Blodgett, of the United 
States Grand Jury of this district in the 
great whisky prosecution. He and his wife 
are members of the Congregational Church; 
he is a stanch Republican. Mr. Lyman's 
parents, Rev. Orange and Marcia (Dewey) 
Lyman, were among the early settlers here. 
Our subject is one of seven children, viz., 
Stephen D., Cornelia, Henry M., Thomas, 
Euratas, Mary E. and Edward. In the pos- 
session of Mr. Lyman is a barrel which was 



104 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



shipped to the family over forty years ago, by 
soine of the relatives, containing dried apples, 
and a bag of specie, with which "coin'' they 
paid for their first piece of land, a part of 
the old homestead. 

THOMAS LYMAN, real estate dealer, Chi- 
cago, Downer's Grove, was born in 1824 ; son of 
Rev. and Marcia (Dewey) Lyman, he a na- 
tive of Connecticut, she of Sheffield, Mass. ; they 
came to Downer's Grove Township in 1839. 
Subject's father was a Congregational minis- 
ter, and was one of the first clergymen in 
Downer's Grove, where he died in 1851 ; his 
wife died in Iowa in 1873; they were the 
parents of seven children, three of whom are 
living. Mr. Lyman received his education in 
the East and at Chicago, and, at the age of 
nineteen years, entered a store as clerk. 
When twenty-three years old, he, in company 
with his brother Stephen, opened a store at 
Rockton, 111., thence removed to Iowa, re- 
maining in business there eight years; he 
then engaged for ten years as real estate 
agent in Chicago for parties in the East, and 
represented for many years more property be- 
longing to Boston capitalists than any other 
dealer in Chicago. For the last seventeen 
years, he has been engaged in the general 
real estate business on his own account, and 
owns a great deal of property in Chicago; he 
built Portland Block, one of the best in Chi- 
cago. In 1847, he married Miss P. Clark, of 
Ashtabula County, Ohio; they have had one 



child 



-Bessie, wife of R. Giddings, who is 



in business with Mr. Lyman, with whom 
they reside. Mr. and Mrs. Giddings have 
one child — Edward R. Mr. Lyman attends 
very closely to his business, in thirty-eight 
years not having lost more than two months' 
time from actual business, save a few weeks' 
vacation each year; he settled at his present 
place, in Downer's Grove, in 1867, where he 
has a fine residence. He is well known 



throughout the United States as a dealer and 
breeder of fine Jersey cattle. Mr. Lyman 
was originally a Whig, now a stanch Repub- 
lican. 

R. LYMAN, farmer, P. O. Lemont, Cook 
County, was born in Massachusetts in 1824; 
his father, Liberty, was born in 1794, and 
his mother, Lucinda (Sikes) Lyman, in 1796; 
they were natives of Massachusetts, and set- 
tled in Michigan, where the father died in 
1863; the mother of subject is still living; 
they were the parents of ten children. At 
the age of twenty-two, our subject started on 
foot for the Southwest, with only $10; this 
soon gave out, and he then chopped wood 
and logs for a time; he finally came to Le- 
mont, 111., where he took charge of a squad 
of men enrployed in constructing the Illinois 
& Michigan Canal. In 1850, he engaged in 
mining and the lumber business in Califor- 
nia, which he continued sixteen years; he 
was married, in 1856, to Mary G., daughter 
of George W. and Adaline M. (Sharp) Alder- 
man, who came to Illinois in 1838, settling 
where subject now resides, he dying in June, 
1879, she in June, 1875. He returned from 
California in 1866, and farmed here two 
years; then went back to California, where 
he stayed four years, then made his final set- 
tlement on the present farm in Downer's 
Grove Township, containing 167 acres of 
land, in Sections 6 and 7. Mr. and Mrs. Ly- 
man are the parents of eight children, six of 
whom survive, viz., George L. , Marua (Mrs. 
A. Bannister), Henry M., Nellie S., Zolia B. 
and Sylvester A. Mr. Lyman was Supervisor 
while in California; he is a Republican. He 
is making a specialty of Holstein cattle and 
Poland-China hogs. 

THOMAS LAMB, retired farmer, P. O. 
Downer's Grove, was born in Hancock, Berk- 
shire Co., Mass., May 12, 1814; only son of 
Phineas and Eunice (Howe) Lamb, he born 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



105 



in Canada, she in Massachusetts. Phineas 
Lamb was a shoemaker by trade, and died in 
1816; his widow married Dennis Eggleston, 
whom she bore four children. By a marriage 
prior to that with subject's father, she had 
one child — Lothrop Smith. Thomas received 
a fair education in the country schools, and, 
at the age of eleven years, went to live with 
Mr. Samuel W. Wilson, with whom he re- 
mained till he was twenty-three years old. 
In 1844, he came to Kendall County, 111., 
bought 100 acres of land, which he farmed 
for seven years; thence moved to De Kalb 
County, 111., bought land and remained on 
it three years; thence to Iowa, where he in- 
vested in land, which he farmed eleven years. 
From Iowa, he moved, in 1865, to Lisle 
Township, this county, where he bought a 
well-improved farm of 160 acres, where he 
remained till 1877, when he retired from 
farm life and came to Downer's Grove, where 
he has since resided. He married, in 1835, 
Ellis Jenks (sister of Mrs. Austin), born in 
Massachusetts December 24, 1816; they had 
six children, of whom only one is living — 
Milton, married LuellaRoe, living on hisfarm; 
Palmer W. (deceased), Thomas P. (deceased), 
Benjamin F., died in Company K, Thirteenth 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry; William H., 
died in Company H, Seventh Illinois Volun- 
teer Infantry, and Charles A. , died in 1881. 
Mr. Lamb is a Republican; his wife is a 
member of the M. E. Church. 

GEORGE LITTLEFORD, farmer, P. O. 
Gower, was born in England March 1, 1825; 
is a son of Reuben and Maria (Hoar) Little- 
ford, natives of England, and parents of 
seven children; his father was a hotel-keeper 
and farmer; he and his wife were both Epis- 
copalians. Our subject attended school in 
those days when each pupil was obliged to 
carry fourpence every Monday morning, with 
which to pay for the week's schooling. In 



1845, he, with his brother William, came to 
America: worked at farming in several States 
until 1859, when they bought eighty acres of 
land, a part of our subject's present farm of 
240 acres. Here he began labor with ox 
teams. In 1851, Mr. Littleford was married 
to Ann Jones, daughter of George and Ann 
(Leonard) Jones, born May 17, 1830, and is one 
of a family of eight children. Mr. and Mrs. 
Littleford have had ten children — Eliza and 
Sydney, deceased; George E., teacher at La 
Grange, 111.; Reuben H., a butcher; Frank, 
Jackson, Ann, James, Efne and Lottie, still 
living. Our subject and wife and their sons 
George and Frank are members of the Meth- 
odist Church at Cass. 

JACOB LEHMANN, farmer, P. O. Gower, 
was born in 1839 in Germany, and is a son of 
Henry and Eva Lehmann, who came to York 
Township, Du Page County, in 1858, after 
residing in the State of New York one year. 
The father is dead, and the mother lives with 
her son Henry. Our subject attended school 
a very little, and worked at farming while in 
Germany. In 1862, he married Sallie Kline, 
by whom he has six children, viz., Jacob, 
Sallie, George, Fred, Louis and Valentine. 
Mr. Lehmann has eighty-seven acres of well- 
iru proved land as a result of his labors; he 
raises some fine cattle. He and his wife are 
active members of the Lutheran Church; he 
has been Pathmaster, and is now School Di- 
rector. Subject's eldest son, Jacob, is in 
partnership with John Liston in blacksmith- 
ing, and they are doing a tine business in 
Downer's Grove Township, at the junction of 
the Plainfield and Naperville roads. 

J. C. MERRICK, physician and surgeon, 
Hinsdale, was born April 21, 1842, in Wal- 
worth County, Wis. ; son of A. L. and C. P. 
(Cook) Merrick, natives of New York and 
Massachusetts respectively; he living in Wis- 
consin; she died in 1855; they were the par- 



106 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



.ents of seven children. The Doctor attended 
the district schools in the winters, until he 
was about eighteen years old, when he en- 
tered the public schools of Burlington, Wis., 
attending two terms; then attended Todd's 
Seminary, at Woodstock, McHenry Co., 111., 
two terms, and afterward entered the Beloit 
College, where be completed his studies in 
the scientific course and Latin; he then read 
medicine with Dr. G. F. Newell, of Water- 
ford, Bacine County, for three years, attend- 
ing in the meantime the Rush Medical Col- 
lege, Chicago, from which he graduated with 
high honors, in January, 1809; he at once 
began to practice his profession, near Mil- 
waukee, and at the end of a year entered 
the celebrated Bellevue Hospital College for 
five months, locating afterward at Burlington, 
Wis., where he remained three years, meeting 
with success. In December, 1871, he located 
in Hinsdale, where he has a lucrative prac- 
tice; he kept a drug store here for several 
years, which he lately sold to William Ever- 
enden; he was married, in 1868, to Louise 
Weage, of Wisconsin, who has borne him 
three children — Harry A., Fred A. and one 
dead. He is a member, and also medical ex- 
aminer, of the A. O. U. W., and is now serv- 
ing as Village Trustee. 

JOHN MACKINDER, retired farmer, P. 
O. Hinsdale, is a native of England, born 
July 26, 1813; son of John and Ann (Black- 
burn) Mackinder, who were the parents of 
seven children — Mary (Mrs. William Banks), 
John, Elizabeth (Mrs. George Taylor), Rich- 
ard, Ann (2), Joseph and Edward. His par- 
ents were members of the Episcopal Church. 
Mr. Mackinder received a limited education, 
and began life working on a farm; he came 
to Chicago, 111., in 1851, thence to Fullers- 
burg, this county, where he bought eighty 
acres of land, which, after five years, he sold 
out and bought 100 acres in Cass, where he 



remained several years, and then invested in 
property in Fullersburg, where he has since 
resided. In 1833, he married Lydia, daugh- 
ter of John and Lydia Cross, natives of En- 
gland; from this union eight children have 
been born — Mary A. (Mrs. John Fuller), 
Elizabeth (deceased), Ellen (Mrs. Morrell 
Fuller), Jane (Mrs. Cyrus Fetterman), John, 
Edward (deceased), Emma (deceased) and 
Susan (Mrs. Robert Chilvers). Mrs. Mack- 
inder died September 7, 187-, since which 
time Mr. Mackinder has resided with 
Mr. Morrell Fuller; he is a Republican and 
is connected with the Universalist Church. 
Mr. Fuller, with whom he resides, is a plas- 
terer in Chicago, and served three years in 
Company B, One Hundred and Fifth Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry as Drum Major; he was 
married in 1865, and has one child — Nellie. 

H. C. MIDDAUGH, farmer, P. O. Hins- 
dale, was born February 19, 1833, in Scio, 
Allegany Co., N. Y. ; is a son of Elijah and 
Louisa (Noble) Middaugh, he born in Dry- 
den, N. Y., April 6, 1805, died October 17, 
1872; she, born in Whitehall, N. Y., October 
28, 1811, is living with her son, John E., in 
Scio, N. Y. , and is a member of the Methodist 
Church. Our subject had the educational 
advantages usual among pioneers, but in ad- 
dition, he, for a few years, attended Friend- 
ship Academy and Genesee College, taught 
for a short time, and, in 1S54, came West to 
seek his fortune. In 1855, he commenced 
work in a lumber aud sash factory in Chi- 
cago, where he remained three years. After 
teaching school a short time at Jefferson, 111., 
he served the Merchants' Loan and Trust 
Company in the capacity of book-keeper for 
three years; then, for four years, as Teller; 
severing his connection with this firm, he em- 
barked in business for himself, first, in the 
furniture business, which he continued but a 
short time, then in the lumber trade, and 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



109 



afterward, in the real estate business, which 
he continued many years. In 1878, he in- 
vested $25,000 in land where he now lives, at 
Clarendon Hills, Du Page Co., III. He has 
since invested $25,000 more, so that he now 
has 180 acres of beautiful land, mostly laid 
out in lots, and dotted with ornamental and 
fruit trees. Near this, he also has another 
plat of eighty acres; all of this land is at a 
fine elevation, and upon it Mr. Middaugh has 
erected buildings valued at over $13,000; he 
raises good horses, Berkshire pigs and thor- 
oughbred Jersey cattle; has barn room for 
500 tons of hay, and 150 horses. He was 
married, in Chicago, February 7, 1878, to 
Miss Susan Price, born in Lakeville, Living- 
ston Co., N. Y., in March, 1828, daughter of 
Arthur and Agnes (Sinclair) Price, he a na- 
tive of England, bom in 1783; she, born in 
Pennsylvania in 1793, died in September, 
1875. Mr. and Mrs. Middaugh attend the 
Methodist Church of Hinsdale. 

CHAELES MIHM, farmer. P. O. Gower, 
was born March 6, 1818, at Willow Springs, 
Cook Co., 111., and is a son of Christian and 
Catharine (Fisher) Mihm, natives of Bavaria, 
Germany; his father was born December 6. 
1811 ; emigrated to America in 1839, and his 
mother, who was born October 23, 1817, em- 
igrated in 1845. They were married in Chica- 
go and settled at Willow Springs, where he 
worked on the Illinois & Michigan Canal. In 
1849, they settled on the 280 acres, where the 
mother now lives with our subject, his father 
having died May 19, 1874; they were both 
life-long members of the German Lutheran 
Church. Charles attended school in a cabin 
which stood on his father's farm, it being the 
first schoolhouse in this part of the country; 
he also attended a business college in Chi- 
cago for two terms. The greater part of his 
life has been spent on the old farm, to which 
he has added twenty acres, making in all 300 



acres of finely improved land. The original 
homestead of 280 acres was purchased by 
John Fisher, a brother of Mr. M.'s mother; he 
came here with the family in 1842, and, in 
1850, commenced work in the Singer stone 
quarry, of Lemont, of which he became fore- 
man. September 13, 1864, he was killed at 
the quarry by an iron derrick. In Lyonsville, 
Cook Co., Ill, June 1, 1876, Mr. Mihm mar- 
ried Mary Pantke, born in Downer's Grove, 
this county, October 9, 1858, a daughter of 
August and Rosa (Steindel) Pantke, natives 
of Prussia, he born August 8, 1823, she born 
July 25, 1828. Mr. and Mrs. Mihm are par- 
ents of four children, three of whom — 
Charles, Lydia and Rufus — are living Mr. 
Mihm raises some Short-Horn cattle. He is 
School Director and member of the Lutheran 
Church, as is also his wife. 

J. B. MACKIE, fanner, P. O. Cass, is a 
native of Scotland, born in Glasgow October 
20, 1833; his parents, Thomas and Margaret 
(Boag) Mackie, were also natives of Scotland, 
where the former died; the latter came to 
Ohio, where she was married to R. Simms; 
she died in Michigan in 1872; she was a 
Presbyterian; by her first marriage, she had 
six children. Subject attended school in 
Toledo, Ohio, when it was about the size of 
what Downer's Grove now is, and also in 
Brooklyn, N. Y. , obtaining a fair education; 
at the age of eighteen, he began learning the 
machinist's trade, at Mt. Vernon, Ohio, where 
he remained over three years, when his health 
failing, from confinement to the shops, he 
came to Illinois to recruit for one year, stop- 
ping with his uncle John, who, at an early 
day, had settled the farm on which subject 
now lives. Here siibject engaged in farming 
and now has a fine farm of 188 acres, the 
greater part of which is the fruit of his own 
labors. He married, in 1S64, Elizabeth 
Dunn, daughter of William P. and Hannah 



110 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



(Antill) Dunn, both natives of England, who 
came to Kendall County, 111., in 1840, and 
who had two children — Hannah and Eliza- 
beth. Mr. and Mrs. Mackie have one child 
— Laura M. , an efficient teacher, educated at 
Fort Wayne, Ind., and Naperville, this county. 
Mr. and Mrs. Mackie are active members of 
the M. E. Church at Cass. He is a stanch 
Republican. 

LEVI MERTZ, hardware, Downer's Grove, 
was born February 17, 1848, in Downer's 
Grove, this county, son of Edward and Sarah 
(Setzer) Mertz, both of Allentown, Penn., and 
both still living, he born March 6, 1817, she 
born September 22, 1822; they were the par- 
ents of eleven children, six of whom are liv- 
ing — Mary, Wellington, Levi, Allen, Lydia 
and Lewis. Edward and wife came to Illi- 
nois in 1841, and bought 207 acres of land at 
$5 per acre. Our subject engaged with J. 
W. Rogers & Co. in 1870, and continued 
with that firm till July, 1881. November 11, i 
1881, he bought one-half interest in the hard- 
ware establishment of George Mochel &Bro., 
where he has remained and is doing a fine 
business. In Chicago, January 1, 1878, he 
married Lydia A. Faul, who has borne one 
child— Frod R., born February 19, 1882. 
Mrs. Mertz was born in Downer's Grove, this 
county, March 14, 1853, and is a daughter of 
Henry and Eva M. (Wolff) Faul, both of 
whom are living, he born in Bavaria March 
19, 1818, she born in Strasburg October 26, 
1819. Mr. Mertz enlisted during the war, 
but was pronounced too young. Is a Repub- 
lican, having cast his first vote for Grant. 

JOHN OLDFIELD, farmer, P. O. Lemont. 
The gentleman whose name heads this brief 
biography is a native of England, being born 
there June 15, 1824; his parents, Joseph and 
Ann Edgoose, were natives of England and 
possessed a family of five children, viz., one 
deceased when young, Mary A. (Mrs. J. Bat- 



terham, a farmer in England), John, Jesse, 

. The parents are both within the silent 

grave, in the bosom of the sunny land of En- 
gland. The mother was an active Methodist. 
John spent his younger days in attending 
school and the rural pursuits of life. On the 
7th day of April, 1854, he was united in 
marriage with Hannah, a daughter of Will- 
iam and Ann (Tufts) Reader, natives of En- 
gland. Her parents were blessed with thir- 
teen children, seven of whom survive, viz., 
Elizabeth (Mrs. Standish), Hannah, Sarah 
(Mrs. Joseph Gregory), Mary (Mrs. Laywood), 
John (married Jane Winkley), Ann (Mrs. 
Herring) and William, who married twice, 
the first wife being Sarah Wallace, and the 
second Emily Siplaw; her parents were primi- 
tive Methodists, and meetings were held in 
their house when churches were yet to be con- 
structed. In a few days after mai-riage, Mr. 
and Mrs. Oldfield gathered their small amount 
of worldly treasure, and, in company with 
his brother Jesse, John James Reader and six 
others, they boarded the "Queen Victoria," 
and, in a few weeks, were landed safely at 
New York; June 12, they landed at Chicago, 
where Mrs. O. remained while her husband 
prospected for a location. After making a 
long and wearisome trip through the Fox 
River region, Mr. O. returned to Chicago, 
and soon after rented a farm of George 
Smith, a banker of Chicago, lying a few miles 
from that city, which he managed with suc- 
cess for four years; he then bought forty 
acres of John Riddler, in the Cass neighbor- 
hood, Du Page County; he and his brother 
Jesse, who had remained with him since their 
arrival in this country, brought a load of 
household articles, and lodged on the night 
of their reaching this forty acres in a small 
log cabin, now in use on the farm of Jesse. 
They used their boots for pillows, making 
their beds only planks. This seemed to be no 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



Ill 



discouragement to them, and in this locality 
they hare remained, accumulating, by industry 
and frugality, a vast fortune, consisting of 
several hundred acres of finely improved land 
and large herds of cattle and sheep. Mrs. O. 
has long been an active member of the Meth- 
odist Church, being now associated with the 
church at Cass, to which organization her hus- 
band has donated a large amount of money. 
Mr. and Mrs. O. have been blessed with one 
daughter — Elizabeth A., born December 10, 
1845, and married May 11, 1869, George B. 
Heartt, who was in the late war; her marriage 
has blessed her with some happy children. It 
is the purpose of this personal sketch to note 
the prominent characteristics of the individ- 
uals to which they refer, and to hand down to 
the future those who now stand prominent as 
citizens of our country and representative 
men. Comment on the useful lives of this 
biography would be useless verbiage, super- 
fluous and unmeaning. Enough to say they 
have obtained their large fortune by their 
own efforts. 

R. OLDFIELD, farmer, P. O. Downer's 
Grove, was born in England September 2, 
1836; his parents, John and Anna (Fields) 
Oldfield, were natives of England and the 
parents of six children, all now living. 
John Oldfield, subject's father, came to Illi- 
nois in 1847, and, in 1848, settled on eighty 
acres in Section 16, this township, and after- 
ward added forty acres; he is now deceased; 
his wife is still living. Our subject attended 
school in the country and worked on a farm 
in his younger days; he carried on an exten- 
sive butcher business for about two years at 
Downer's Grove, with a man by the name of 
Briggs. He was married, in 1861, to Kate 
E. Dixon, who died in 1865, having borne 
him two children — Harry and Alice; he was 
again married, to Emma R., daughter of Rev. 
Samuel and Henrietta (Greeley) Ambrose; by 



this marriage, two children have been born, 
viz., Roy and Gracy; he met with a severe 
loss, that of his left arm, by the discharge of 
a gun in the hands of an awkward boy, who 
was quarreling with another boy. Mr. Old- 
field has taken delight in driving fast horses 
at fairs; he makes a specialty of horses; he 
has forty acres of well-improved land in Sec- 
tion 17; he is now in his fifth term as Tax 
Collector of this township. Himself and 
wife are members of the M. E. Church. 

A. L. PEARSALL, Postmaster, Hinsdale, 
was born in Chenango County, N. Y., Octo- 
ber 28, 1828; son of John and Clarinda 
(Walker) Pearsall, also natives of that county. 
John Pearsall came with his family, in 1839, 
to Belvidere, Boone Co., 111., where he died 
March 2, 1865; his wife died in Iowa, Janu- 
ary, 1879 ; they were active members of the 
Methodist Church, and were the parents of 
six children. Mr. Pearsall attended school 
from one to four months during the winter 
seasons, and also used his own endeavors 
while at home to obtain an education. At 
the age of eighteen, he began teaching in 
Knox County, 111. While in Belvidere, he 
engaged for a time in the grocery and also in 
the hardware trade. In April, 1855, he mar- 
ried Harriet Rockwell, of Kalamazoo, Mich. . 
who has borne him two children — Jennie E., 
wife of A. R. Robinson, Principal of the 
Chicago Schools, and Henry, correspondent 
of the American Iron Works, Chicago. Mr. 
Pearsall settled in Hinsdale in 1870, and here 
engaged in selling school furniture for A. S. 
Barnes & Co., Chicago, for a year; then 
worked for a prominent uurscryin an of Michi- 
gan for some time; he was chosen Justice of 
the Peace, and, in 1875, was commissioned 
Postmaster at Hinsdale by President Grant, 
both of which positions he now holds; he is 
also a Notary Public. He has been Assessor 
of Downer's Grove Township two terms, and 



112 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



filled that position in Boone County five 
years. He is a member of Hinsdale Lodge, 
No. 649, A., F. & A. M., of which he is S. 
W. ; he and his wife are members of the Con- 
gregational Church, of which he is Trustee; 
he is a Republican. He served four months 
in the One Hundred and Twenty seventh Il- 
linois Volunteer Infantry as superintendent 
of a ponton bridge at Nashville, Tenn., 
across the Cumberland River. 

GARDNER PAIGE, retired farmer, P. O. 
Downer's Grove, was born July 17, 1826, in 
Royalton, Vt; son of David and Anna (Par- 
ker) Paige, who came from their native State 
to this section in 1837; bought land and 
built the first frame house in this section of 
Downer's Grove. David died June 26, 1864; 
the mother June 8, 1879. The grandfather 
Parker was in the Revolutionary war. The 
mother of Mr. Paige being a school teacher, 
taught him mostly at home. June 17, 1852, 
he married Annis W., daughter of M. P. and 
Hannah (Hill) Gilbert, of Vermont, who came 
to Illinois in 1848. Mrs. Paige's father was 
a soldier in the war of 1812, and her grand- 
father Gilbert was an officer in the Revolu- 
tionary war; her father died June 30, 1878; 
her mother is living with her. Our subject 
has had five children — Martha, married, Sep- 
tember 3, 1879, to S. W. Miller, station 
agent at Lockport; Rosa A. and Gertrude; 
those dead are Hannah and Alzina. Mr. 
Paige is now filling the position of Assessor; 
he has been a Justice of the Peace and Col- 
lector, each three terms; also Road Commis- 
sioner. He (subject), Judge Blanchard and 
John Marion voted the last three Whig tick- 
ets in this township; he is a Republican at 
present: wife is a member of the Baptist 
Church; she taught school many terms in 
this section. 

JOHN PARKER, retired auctioneer, Hins- 
dale, was born June 18, 1810, in Boston, 



Mass. ; is a son of Luther and Elizabeth 
(Lewis) Parker, who reared a family of eight 
children, viz., William, John, Mary E., Al- 
bert, Charles, Adaline, Francis and Ann; his 
father was a merchant in Boston, where John 
attended school, obtaining a fair education. 
When fifteen years old, he began learning 
the carpenter's trade, at which he worked 
three years, and then engaged in a book 
bindery. He next worked in a grocery for 
two years as clerk, after which he had an in- 
terest in the business. In 1836, he came to 
Chicago and engaged in the general merchan- 
dising business, under the firm name of Par- 
ker & Gray. In 1844, he withdrew from 
mercantile pursuits, and auctioneered for 
twelve years; was engaged in the brewery 
business in Chicago for some time, and then 
had an interest in the Corrugated Iron Com- 
pany, in which he sustained considerable loss. 
In 1869, he settled in Hinsdale, where he has 
a good property and runs a vegetable garden. 
In 1835, Mr. Parker married Nancy T. Otis, 
by whom he had three children — Frank, Mary 
and Charles. His wife died from cholera in 
1863. He next married Caroline M. Beal, 
by whom he has had two children — Samuel 
B. and Grace C. 

DANIEL PETERS, farmer, P. O. Down- 
er's Grove, was born August 3, 1851, in 
Downer's Grove Township; is the son of 
Jacob and Barbara (Graff) Peters, natives of 
Germany, and the parents of six children, 
viz., Barbara, Jacob, Fred, Sarah, Daniel 
and Samuel. The parents came to Downer's 
Grove in 1844, and settled where the subject 
now lives. The mother died August 21, 1876, 
and the father is still living, at the age of sixty- 
six, with the subject. Mr. Peters attended 
the common country scBool, and now con- 
ducts the farm, which consists of 112 acres 
of finely cultivated land, and twenty-seven 
acres of timber. In 1877, Mr. Peters mar- 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



113 



ried Lena Atzel, a daughter of F. Atzel, of 
Downer's Grove; he was born March 6, 1813, 
in Germany; came to America in 1833, en- 
gaged in different employments in New York 
City until 1840, when he returned to Ger- 
many. The following year, he again came 
to America, locating in Chicago, where he 
learned the carpenter's trade. In 1851, he 
bought a farm of 120 acres in Downer's 
Grove Township, living on the same till 1874, 
when he rented his farm and settled in the 
village of Downer's Grove. The Atzel family 
are members of the German M. E. Church, as 
are also Mr. and Mrs. Peters. The latter 
have three children — Clara, Edwin and Hen- 
ry. Mr. Peters is a Republican. 

F. G. PRESCOTT, farmer, P. O. Gower, 
was born January 5, 1833, in Prussia, and is 
the son of G. Prescott, who came to this 
country in 1839; his father, who died in 
1860, was married three times, and our sub- 
ject was one of three children by his first 
wife. Mr. Prescott received but little edu- 
cation; came to Cook County in 1839, and 
worked on the canal with his father. His 
first work for himself was trapping, in part- 
nership with his brother G. They were thus 
employed for six years, on the Desplaines 
River. In 1858, they went to Iowa and 
trapped along the rivers during the winters 
until 1805, when they abandoned this kind 
of work. They had been quite successful, 
making as high as $-40 each per day. In 
1860, Mr. Prescott hunted with Little Crow, 
chief of the Crow Indians. In 1861, our 
subject married Rosa Pantke, whose parents 
are residents of this county. By this union, 
there are twelve children, all living, viz., 
Rosa, now Mrs. Huffman; Amelia, Julia, 
Lena, Edward, Matilda, Willie, Charlie, Otto, 
Caroline, Richard and Maude. Mr. Prescott 
now owns 144 acres of well-improved land, 
the result of his own hard labor. He and 



his father were two of the first passengers on 
the Illinois & Michigan Canal. Our subject 
and his family are members of the Lutheran 
Church, of which he is treasurer and trustee. 
G. H. PAPENHAUSEN, tailor, Hinsdale, 
was born in Germany September 28, 1837; 
his parents, Richard aud Mary (Stopenhau- 
sen) Papenhausen, were also natives of Ger- 
many, and had four children, two living — 
Fred, a tailor iu Chicago, and G. H ; his 
father was a tailor and with whom G. H. 
learned his trade. Mr. Papenhausen attended 
school nine years, and then began to work at 
tailoring. He came to Brush Hills, this 
j county, in 1870, and began working at his 
! trade there, having scarcely any money. In 
1875, he came to Hinsdale, where he has 
since done a good business ; he has been fort- 
unate in securing property here worth $2,- 
500; he was married, in Germany, to Mary 
Bachrans, who has borne him six children — 
Mary, Sophia, Ann, Willie, Lena and Charlie; 
they attend the Lutheran Church. He votes 
the Republican ticket, and is a member of 
the A. O. IT. W. at Hinsdale. 

PROF. J. K. RASSWEILER, Principal 
of Downer's Grove Schools. He is a native 
of Millersbiu'g, Dauphin Co., Penn., born 
September 10, 1853 ; his parents, J. Philip and 
Anna D. (Haesler) Rassweiler, are represen- 
tatives of that nationality to which the United 
States is indebted for very many thousands 
of her most prosperous citizens and substan- 
tial men of worth and merit, beiotr born in 
Hanover, Germany. J. Philip Rassweiler 
was born April 18, 1812; emigrated to Amer- 
ica in 1825, and afterward settled perma- 
nently in Stephenson County, 111. His parents 
not being in affluent circumstances, our subject 
worked on the farm during the summers, thus 
laying the foundation of his present energy, 
and, in the winters, when farm labor was not 
to be obtained, he applied himself to mental 



114 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



improvement, with eminent success. His school 
days began in the country, and, when at a rea- 
sonable age, he entered an academy at Cedar - 
ville, Stephenson County, where he advanced 
very rapidly; he set his mind for a thorough 
education, and his parents were unable to 
help him, so he devised every means in his 
power to be able to reach the target. He 
became qualified to teach in the country 
schools at the age of fifteen, and took advan- 
tage of that vocation, teaching in the winters 
and attending college in the summers. He 
entered the Western College, at Naperville, 
in 1870, where he graduated in 1876, with 
high honors. During the period of sis years 
that he was receiving instructions at the last- 
mentioned institution, he taught terms of 
school at Mendota and Fullersburg. He was 
employed at the Downer's Grove Schools in 
1876, a position his education and abilities 
peculiarly qualify him to fill. He has taken 
those schools from a mere primary grade, and 
has set them upon a foundation ranking 
among the best in this country. At Streator, 
111., September 15, 1876, he married Mary 
E. Beringer, born in Menominee Falls. Wis., 
April 24, 1854, daughter of Mahlon D. and 
Caroline K. (Wambold) Beringer, natives of 
Pennsylvania; he died February 16, 1859; 
she was born July 23, 1833. Mrs. Bass- 
weiler's father was a member of the Evan- 
gelical Church. Her mother was again mar- 
ried to a Bev. J. Miller, of the Evangelical 
Church. Mr. B.'s union has blessed him 
with two children, viz., Lula Winifred and 
Balph Edmund. He and wife are active 
members of the Evangelical Church at Na- 
perville. He is now Village Trustee. Being 
averse to office, he has not been an office- 
seeker. He is, however, now a candidate for 
Superintendentof Schools of Du Page County, 
a position he will probably get before this 
sketch is in print. 



MBS. NANCY S. BOTE, Downer's Grove, 
was born August 29, 1830, in Lower Canada; 
her father, Daniel Boberts, was born in New 
Hampshire, and her mother, Lucy (Clark) 
Boberts, in Lower Canada; they came here 
in 1S45, settling in the Cass neighborhood. 
Subject attended school but a short time in 
the country, but afterward entered a select 
school at Naperville, where she remained 
quite awhile. She was married, in 1848, to 
Luke S. Kimball, and from this union two 
children were born, viz., Edward D. and 
Clara M., wife of Mr. Dawe, a Methodist 
minister; she died May 28, 1881, leaving 
three children — Ida M. , E. Eaymond and 
Charles. Mr. Kimball was educated at Mt. 
Morris, Ogle County, this State; was a class- 
mate of ex- Gov. J. L. Beveridge; studied law 
in Chicago and practiced in Hennepin, Putnam 
County; his death occurred February 13, 
1852, from drowning, in attempting to rescue 
some men from a boat which was frozen in 
the ice. Mrs. Bote then came to this county, 
and, in 1857, was married to Biehard Bote, 
native of Columbia County, N. Y., and by this 
marriage was blessed with six children — Eva 
V., Esther H., Mabel G., Ada E., Berton H. 
and Ernest D. Mr. Bote died April 29, 
1879; was a member of the M. E. Church at 
Cass, to which denomination the subject now 
belongs. In September, 1881, Mrs. Bote 
came to Downer's Grove. In 1882, she sold 
her eighty acres of well-improved land at $65 
per acre, and is living retired. 

F. A. BOGEBS, postal clerk on Chicago 
& Dubuque mail route. Downer's Grove. 
Mr. Bogers, of whom we write, is a native of 
St. Lawrence County, N. Y. ; is a brother of 
Capt. T. A. Bogers, whose sketch, together 
with that of his father, appears elsewhere. 
He had the advantage of the district schools, 
and a graded one at Somonauk, De Kalb 
County, this State. He spent his younger 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



115 



days on his father's farm. He enlisted, in 
1861, in Company E, I. C. A. V., and served 
the cause of his country for three years; was 
in about fifty battles and skirmishes, among 
which were those of the Potomac campaign. 
On bis return from the war, he engaged prin- 
cipally in farming until October 3, 1880, 
when he was commissioned postal clerk on 
the Chicago & Dubuque mail route, in which 
position he has proven an efficient officer, 
having scarcely made a single mistake in the 
transfer of mail, the labor of which is de- 
pendent entirely upon the memory of hun- 
dreds of officers, their locality and mail route. 
He was married, September 6. 1866, to Mary 
A. Plummer, a daughter of Benjamin and 
Amelia (Thomas) Plummer, of Hinsdale, 
which union blessed him with four children, 
viz.. Minnie A., born July 7, 1867; Mamie 
E., born July 15, 1869; Charlie L., born Au- 
gust 24, 1870; and Elbert A., born August 
3, 1879. Mr. Rogers has been Collector of 
Downer's Grove Township for three years. 
In 1880, he took the census of said township. 
Is a charter member of Hinsdale Lodge, No. 
649, A., F. & A. M. , and has been Past Mas- 
ter of the same. He votes the Republican 
ticket. In June, 1880, he bought eighty-five 
acres where he now lives, in Downer's Grove 
Township, and here his family remains On 
this farm stands an old log cabin that was 
erected about the year 1834, by Horace Al- 
drich, who for many years at this place kept 
the only hotel on the old plank road between 
Brush Hills and Naperville. It was in this 
building that tbe Rogers family slept the first 
night they were in Du Page County. The 
old well of forty-five years still furnishes as 
pure water as it did whenthe merry traveler 
of those olden times tied his ox team, that he 
might bend over the old oaken bucket to 
quench his thirst. A portion of the old nur- 
sery once cultivated by Mr. Aldrich can be 



seen here, adjacent to the old structures. 
This hotel was known as Prospect Hill, and 
recently a large number of receipts were 
found about the old building bearing such a 
postmark. They were receipts for board 
bills that were probably never paid. Mr. 
Rogers has the patents for his present farm, 
which were signed by J. K. Polk. 

CAPT. T. S. ROGERS, meat market, Chi- 
cago, P. O. Downer's Grove, was born August 
30, 1831, in St. Lawrence County, N. Y. ; is a 
son of Joseph I. and Caroline A. (Smith) 
Rogers. The father was born January 12, 
1802, in Herkimer County, N. Y., and the 
mother on April 15, 1812, in West Spring- 
field, Mass. The family came to this county 
in 1844, and bought land where P. S. Cossitt 
now lives. Here the father died November 
18, 1863; the mother is living in Downer's 
Grove. Our subject attended school in a log 
cabin which stood on the old Goodenough 
farm, receiving instruction from Amanda 
Forbes. He taught school some during his 
life, in Milton Township, Lisle, and at Brush 
Hill. He has run a threshing machine and 
driven ox teams. "Was married, December 
13, 1855, to Helen M. Stanley, a sister cf L. 
W- Stanley, whose sketch appears elsewhere; 
she was born February 6, 1833; she has 
blessed her husband with two children, both 
of whom are deceased. In 1860, he was 
elected Sheriff of Du Page County. He en- 
listed, before his term of office closed, in 
Company B, One Hundred and Fifth Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry, and was elected Captain 
in July, 1862, and served till the fall of 1864. 
On his return from the war, he taught school 
in Downer's Grove, and in 1866 he engaged 
in the meat business at Chicago, which he 
continues. He has a beautiful residence in 
Downer's Grove, and goes to and from his 
business each day. He has been President 
of the Board of Trustees of Downer's Grove 



116 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



since its organization; was Township Super- 
visor one term, and has some other small 
offices. Mention of the Rogers family will 
be found elsewhere. 

WILLIAM BOBBINS, real estate, Hins- 
dale, was born July 20, 1824, in Oswego 
County, N. Y. ; is a son of John and Polly 
(Furguson) Bobbins, the former a native of 
Keene, N. H., and the latter of Albany, N. Y. 
They came to McHenry County, 111., in 1844, 
and died there. Our subject attended school 
in the country, and afterward graduated at 
the Bensselaer Academy, at Mexico, N. Y. 
He then taught district schools in New York 
and in Illinois, to which latter State he came 
with his parents. Soon after his arrival in 
this State, he entered a dry goods store as 
clerk, where he continued until 1850, when 
he went with several others to California, and 
mined one winter. The following spring, he 
engaged in general merchandising, under the 
firm name of Bull, Baker & Bobbins, at San 
Francisco, Bed Bluffs and Shasta. They 
were successful, and, after six years, sold out, 
and began banking at San Francisco. This 
they continued successfully for four years, 
when Mr. Bobbins withdrew and came to 
Chicago. In a short time, he invested his 
ample means in real estate, to which he has 
since given his personal attention. He was 
the founder of Hinsdale, where his beautiful 
residence now stands. He has about eight 
hundred acres of land in and around Hins- 
dale, and some in Cook County; has an office 
in Chicago, to which he goes each day. In 
1855, Mr. Bobbins married Marie Steele, who 
blessed him with three children — Isabel, Mrs. 
William H. Knight; John S., engaged in the 
J. I. Case Plow Manufacturing Company at 
Bacine, Wis. ; and George B., chief clerk for 
Col. Forsythe, railroad official of Chicago. 
Mr. Bobbins is a member of the Congrega- 
tional Church at Hinsdale. In August, 1882, 



Mrs. Bobbins was thrown from her buggy by 
a runaway horse, and almost instantly killed. 

DAVID BOTH, farmer, P. O. Hinsdale, 
was born May_25, 1811, in Delaware County, 
N. Y. ; is the son of Edward and Mary (Close) 
Both; the father died in 1815, and the mother 
never remarried. In 1835, she came to Bu- 
reau County, III, where our subject engaged 
in farming and driving ox teams to and from 
Chicago. In 1842, he married Nancy Phelps, 
the result of the union being eleven children: 
Serena G., Mary, Porter, Charlie, Marshall, 
Frank. Myram, Frances, Norman Hyram, and 
Laura. They remained in Bureau County till 
1865, at which time our subject bought land 
near Brush Hills. Here they remained until 
1806, when they located in Hinsdale, where 
they have since remained, with the exception 
of four years which they spent in Iowa. Solo- 
mon and Leonard, brothers of our subject, 
were in the Back Hawk war. Mr Both was 
first a Democrat, then a Bepublican, and now 
is a member of the Greenback party, of which 
he is an enthusiastic advocate. 

JOSIAH BICHAEDS, butcher. Downer's 
Grove, was born in Will County, 111. . Sep- 
tember 6, 1837. His parents, John A. and 
Lucy P. (Peet) Bichards — the former born in 
New Hampshire October 31, 1803, the latter 
in Vermont April 24, 1804, came to Will 
County, 111., in 1835, thence to this county 
in 1836, where they still reside. Of their 
five children, four are now living, viz., Josiah, 
Louisa, Ellen and Emily. Subject received 
his education in the country schools; also at- 
tended the school at Naperville two terms; 
worked on the farm till he was twenty-one 
years of age, then began life for himself. In 
1875, ho engaged in the butcher business with 
Mr. Naramore, at Downer's Grove, where he 
has since been engaged in that business, and 
doing a good trade. He owns 231 acres of 
well-improved land, in Lisle Township, this 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



117 



county; has filled the offices of Constable and 
Road Commissioner. He is a supporter of 
the Republican party. 

MRS. ELIZA F. SMART, farmer, P. O. 
Cass. Elisha Smart, husband of Mrs. Eliza 
F. Smart, was born in England February* 1 0, 
1816. His parents, Joseph and Mary (Brice) 
Smart, natives of England, came to America 
in 1825 settled in Monroe County, N. Y., 
where their thirteen children grew up, and 
came here in 1844. Mr. Smart worked by 
the year at $35; spent a few months at the 
cooper's trade, and, at the age of twenty, 
bought a farm of 100 acres in New York. 
He married, in 1835, Eliza, daughter of 
Joshua and Mary (Camach) Fell. Her father 
died September 25, 1846, and her mother 
March 24, 1861; they were Methodists. Mr. 
Smart remained three years on his farm in 
New York, then sold out and came to Illinois, 
taking four weeks en route, and settled on 
fifty acres of land. Mr. and Mrs. Smart 
united with the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in 1839, Mrs. Smart being the oldest mem- 
ber of that chiu - ch now at this place. In 
1853, Mi-. Smart went to the California gold 
fields, where he remained about seven years, 
and was somewhat successful. Mrs. Smart 
bought seventy acres of land, the present 
farm, while her husband was in California, 
which his earnings and the produce of the 
farm soon placed clear of debt. Eight 
children were born to them, all living — 
Mary, Mrs. George Price; Wesley, married 
Lucy Ahle; Caroline, Mrs. Thomas Leonard; 
Fannie E., Mrs. Amenzo Gilbert; Jerome, 
married Lyde Ahle; Cecilia, Mrs. Peter War- 
den; Ann M., Mrs. John Warden; and Jose- 
phine, Mrs. Martin Madden. Wesley was 
in Company B. Thirty-third Illinois Volun- 
teer Infantry, three years. 

SYLVESTER SMART, farmer, P. O. Cass, 
was born December 12, 1841, in the village 



I of Cass, this county. His father, William, 
was born in 1808, in Bedfordshire, England, 
and his mother, Mary (Fell) Smart, was born 

- July 4, 1817, in Lincolnshire, England. 
They were both single when they came to 
America, and were married in 1839, and from 
this union five children were born, viz., S. R., 
William H., George E., Albert and Mary E. 
Subject's father settled in this county, in 
what is now Cass, and died December 26, 
1876; his wife, subject's mother, lives with 
her son Henry, and is hale and hearty. Sub- 
ject received his education in the common 
schools, and, when eighteen years old, went 
to New York on a visit; while there, attend- 
ed an academy at Rushford, N. Y. , and, on 
his return home, resumed farming. At the 
age of twenty-two, he rented land of his 
father and began farming for himself. He 
married, March 4, 1868, Editha, daughter of 
Welcome D. and Sarah (Spaulding) Morton, 
natives of Pennsylvania and New York, re- 
spectively, now residents of Vinton, Iowa, 
and parents of nine children, three living, 
viz., Editha (Mrs. Smart), Denisonand Lucy. 
Mrs. Smart was born in this county March 
3, 1847. She and her husband are the par- 
ents of four children, viz., Blanche, born 
March 24, 1870, in Illinois; Ida, born May 
12, 1872, in Jefferson County, Iowa; Gerrit 
S., born February 13, 1874, in Jefferson 
County, Iowa, died February 12, 1880, with 
scarlet fever; William D. , born October 18, 
1876, in Iowa. In 1869, Mr. Smart borght 
a farm in Jefferson County, Iowa, and in the 
spring of 1870 removed to that State, where 
he remained until 1876, when he returned to 
the old homestead. While in Iowa, Mr. 
Smart was very successful, having secured 
two fine farms and improved them, making 
them worth about $6,000. A railroad is now 
in progress which will make the farms very 
valuable. One farm has a fine brick house 



118 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



and all necessary buildings. The other farm 
has new frame buildings, of first-class mate- 
rial. This amount of valuable property has 
been obtained by his own labors. While in 
Iowa, Mr. Smart bought cattle at Chicago 
and fed them on his farm. He is making a 
specialty of fine cattle. He has 180 acres under 
very fine improvement, where he now resides, 
in Section 33. Himself and wife are active 
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
at Cass, in which he is Steward; they attend 
Sunday school. 

G. E. SMART, farmer, P. O. Lemont, 
Cook County, a brother of S. E. Smart, 
whose sketch appears elsewhere, and was 
born October 7, 1847. in this township. He 
attended school as much as was convenient, 
and worked on his father's farm. He mar- 
ried, December 25, 1877, Esther, daughter of 
John and Louisa Hall. Her parents came 
here in 1870; her father died March 27, 1882; 
of their twelve children, three are living, viz. , 
Thomas H., Eliza and Esther M. Mr. and 
Mrs. Smart have two children — Kittie L., born 
June 30, 1871); and Jennie M. , born June 
20, 1881. They have 138 acres of well-im- 
proved land. Mrs. Smart was born January 
2, 1854; she is a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church at Cass. Mr. Smart is 
very successful in farming. 

HAMPTON L. STORY, pianos and organs, 
Hinsdale and Chicago. Mr. Story, of the 
firm of Story & Camp, was born in 1835, in 
Vermont; is a son of Andrew and Adaline 
(Reed) Story, natives of Vermont, and the 
parents of three children, the subject only 
surviving. The father was in the State Leg- 
islature in Vermont, and held many smaller 
positions; was a soldier in the war of 1812. 
Mr. Story attended school in the country, 
Cambridge, Bakersfield, Georgia and Fair- 
fax, all thriving towns of Vermont; at the 
latter, he completed his labors as a student, 



and at the age of eighteen he applied him- 
self to teaching singing and day school in 
this and Kane Counties. In 1857, he went 
to Chase County, Kan., and pre-empted 160 
acres of Government land, paying for it with 
a land warrant received by his father for 
services rendered in the war of 1812. In 
one year he returned to Burlington, Vt., 
where he engaged in the general musical in- 
strument business, continuing until 1868. 
In the meantime, however, he enlisted in 
Company C, Twelfth Vermont Militia. In 
1868, he formed a partnership with Isaac N. 
Camp in the wholesale and retail piano and 
organ business, at Chicago, which firm, Story 
& Camp, has since existed. They have a 
large factory in Chicago, and branch business 
rooms in St. Louis, Des Moines, Kansas City 
and St. Paul, together with those in Chicago, 
representing a capital stock of $500,000. In 
1868, while at Burlington, Vt, Mr. Story 
edited and published the Vermont Musical 
Journal, a work possessing efficient talent. 
They make a specialty of the celebrated Estey 
organs, Decker Bros., Haines Bros, and other 
makes of pianos. Their place of business is 
188 and 190 State street. Mr. Story has been 
twice married, the first time being to Marian 
Fuller, by whom he had three children, viz., 
Edward H., Robert T. and Frank. His sec- 
ond marriage was in 1876, to Adella B. Ellis, 
which union has blessed him with Addie and 
James. His residence is located within the 
limits of Hinsdale, on twenty-one acres of 
fine landjinthis and Cook Counties; together 
with the buildings, is valued at $40,000; all 
' of which, with other large possessions, is the 
, result of his own energies. His wife is a 
member of ( the Episcopalian Church, and he 
is a Republican. 

M. SUCHER, farmer, P. O. Ogden, Iowa, 
was born in France in August, 1811. His 
parents, George and Elizabeth (Kries) Sucher, 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



119 



were natives of France, where the latter died 
in 1819. Subject's father was again married 
to Margaret Knopf, who bore him three chil- 
dren By his marriage with Miss Kries, 
seven children were born, viz., Henry, 
George, Michael, Philip, Daniel, Jacob and 
Margaret. He came to Downer'B Grove about 
1852. where he died; he was a member of the 
Lutheran Church. Subject attended school 
but little; he came to New York on 1833, 
where he worked in succession on a canal, in 
a foundry, a distillery, a ship-lock, at butch- 
ering hogs and chopping wood, and at any- 
thing he could get to do. He also worked at 
splitting rails, digging up stumps and flail- 
ing out wheat, at from $3 to $8 per month. 
In 1837, he married Miss Catharine Wolf, a 
native of France, who had settled in New 
York. He remained in New York some time, 
then came to Illinois and bought 160 acres of 
land, at 10 shillings per acre. He has, by 
careful management, accumulated 240 acres 
of prairie and about eighty acres of timber 
land in this county; he recently sold 240 
acres at $80 per acre, as he intends to locate 
in Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Sucher are the par- 
ents of eleven children, viz., Michael (dead), 
Henry B., William L,. Michael (dead), Mar- 
garet E., George F., Samuel M., Charles E., 
Matilda, Walter and Edward B. Mr. Sucher 
has been Pathmaster and Town Commissioner 
two years. He and his wife are members of 
the German Methodist Church at Downer's 
Grove. He has three lots and good houses 
in Chicago, and a house and lot in Napers- 
ville. He makes a specialty of tine horses. 
J. W 7 . SUCHER, blacksmith, Downer's 
Grove, was born in Shepherdsville, Bullitt Co., 
Ky., July 5, 1841, son of Philip and Emily 
(Hogan) Sucher. Philip Sucher, subject's 
father, who was born in Germany October 15, 
1815, was a blacksmith by trade and a mem- 
ber of the Baptist Church; he had one sister 



and four brothers, viz., Margaret, Michael, 
Henry, Daniel and Jacob; he carried the 
mail from Downer's Grove to West Lyons, 
Lemont and Cass, in all, twenty -one years; 
he died October 26, 1877; his wife, born in 
Nashville, Tenn., March 8, 1818, also a mem- 
ber of the Baptist Church, now resides .in 
Downer's Grove; she is one of a family of 
three chidren, all living; she is the mother of 
five children, viz., James, Jacob, Lewis, Sarah 
and Nettie. Mr. Sucher's great-uncle, Shank - 
lin, was in the war of 1812. The subject of 
this sketch learned the blacksmith's trade 
with his father; enlisted in Company K, 
Thirteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, under 
Capt. Blanchard, and served three years; his 
brother Jacob also served in the same com- 
pany. He married, December 26, 1866, Mary 
C. Gager, born at Whitney's Point, Broome 
Co., N. Y., April 27, 1848, daughter of Am- 
brose S. and Amanda (Thurston) Gager; he, 
born in Binghamton, N. Y., June 15, 1812, 
died November 17, 1874; she, also native of 
New York State, born at Whitney's Point, 
Broome County, June 11, 1812. Mr. and 
Mrs. Sucher have been blessed with three 
children — Beulah E., Elvin N. and Lydia. 
Mrs. Sucher is one of a family of ten chil- 
dren, of whom eight are living — Anna, John 
T., C. M., J. R., Mary C. (Mrs. Sucher), Ly- 
dia M.,Abbie and Ambrose S. Mr. Sucher 
owns a blacksmith shop, lot and dwelling; he 
works in his shop himself, and also employs 
two men; he does a general blacksmithing 
business. He is a charter member and Re- 
corder of Hinsdale Lodge, No. 182, A O. U. W T . 
M. F. SAYLOR, carriage painting and 
trimming, harness making and repairing, 
musical instruments, etc., Downer's Grove, a 
native of Schuylkill County, Penn., born 
September 17, 1831, son of Jacob and Pris- 
cilla (Hoffman) Saylor, natives of Schuylkill 
County, Penn., and who were the parents of 



120 



BIOGRAPHICAL 



eleven children, nine of whom are living, 
viz., Morgan F. (subject), Thomas, Francis, 
Jeremiah, Alexander, Peter, Mary, Emma 
and Alice. Subject, after receiving his edu- 
cation, taught school for five winters. In 
1856, he came with his family to Naperville, 
where he engaged in house- painting till 1860, 
then moved to Plainiield, and soon after to 
Joliet. In 1862, he enlisted in the Fifty- 
second Eegimental Band as B flat cornet 
player, and, after one year's service, was dis- 
charged. In 186:}, he returned to Pennsyl- 
vania and served three months in the militia; 
then became freight agent at Ashland, Penn., 
and, after holding that position a year, went 
to work in the Pennsylvania Central Car 
Works, where he had previously worked five 
years. In 1875, he came to Downer's Grove 
and engaged in carriage and house painting; 
in 1881, added the harness and musical in- 
strument business, and is doing a very good 
trade. Mr. Saylor has been twice married. 
In 1850, he married Anna E. Feger, who was 
killed at Joliet in 1S72, by the explosion of a 
kerosene lamp; from this marriage six chil- 
dren were born, four of whom are living — 
Laura, Newton, Mary and Minnie. In 1874, 
he married Mrs. Margaret Freeman, daughter 
of Michael Sucher; from this marriage two 
children have been born, one of whom is liv- 
ing. Earl C. Mrs. Saylor had by her first 
husband two children, Edward and William. 
He is a Democrat, and himself and wife are 
members of the Baptist Church. 

MICHAEL SHUMP, farmer, P. O. Down- 
er's Grove, was born in December, 1833, in 
Germany; is a son of Henry and Catharine 
(Sites) Shump, who reared a family of six 
children. Our subject had but little chance 
for education; worked on his father's farm 
until twenty-one years of age, when he began 
working out by the month. When he first 
came to this part of the country, he hunted 



mink and other valuable fur-producing ani- 
mals, and thus paid for a small piece of land. 
In 1859, he married Susannah Herbert, a na- 
tive of Germany, and they settled where they 
are now located. They have eight children, 
viz., Henry, Mary, Amelia, Ella, Clara, John, 
Frank aud Lucy. Mr. Shump has 145i acres 
of the finest land in the township, well 
drained with tile; also has two fine orchards. 
Although averse to office, he has held some 
small offices; takes an interest in education 
and local improvements and enterprises. He 
and wife are Catholics. 

QUIRIN SCHMITT, wagon-maker, re- 
pairer and livery, Downer's Grove, was born 
in Europe April 30, 1853; his parents, Ro- 
man and Sophia (Tilken) Schmitt, both de- 
ceased, were Europeans; of their nine chil- 
dren, seven are living, viz. , Nicholas, George, 
Joseph, Amand, Quirin, Sophia and Therese. 
Subject, at the age of thirteen, began learn- 
ing the wagon- maker's trade, which he has 
ever since followed. He came to Illinois in 
1872, and worked one year and seven months 
with John Walters, of Downer' s Grove, whose 
business he then bought, and has since con- 
tinued, making a specialty of repairing and 
building spring wagons, and doing an excel- 
lent trade. In 1881, he added a livery to his 
other business, and is meetingwith good suc- 
cess in that line. He married, January 17, 
1874, Barbara, daughter of Henry and Hele- 
na Schumpp. and from this union three chil- 
dren have been born, viz., Eugene, Ida and 
; Helen. Mrs. Schmitt' s parents were early 
settlers here, and had six children, five of 
whom are living. Mr. Schmitt is a Democrat; 
members of the Catholic Church. 

PHILANDER TORODE, hotel and farm- 
er, P. O. Hinsdale, was born November 4, 
1823, in Monroe County, Ohio. His par- 
ents, Nicholas and Rachel (De Lamare) To- 
rode, were natives of Europe, and emigrated 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSlirP 



121 



to America in 1820, settling in Ohio, and, in 
1837, in Illinois, where his father died in 
1845, and his mother in 1864; they had seven 
children — Nicholas, Peter R. , John J., Charles 
W., Daniel W., George and Philander; they 
were members of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church. Mr. Torode attended the common 
schools, and. at thirteen years of age, began 
working on his father's farm. His life has 
been mostly that of a farmer; however, he 
spent a few years in saw- milling, operating 
a cider-mill and a stone quarry on Section 24 
in York Township, along Salt Creek. He 
was married, March 15, 1854, to Abba, 
daughter of David and Catharine (Fuller) 
ThurstoD, who has borne him one child, who 
grew to maturity — John A. In 1881, Mr. 
Torode left his farm of 150 acres in York 
Township and engaged in the hotel business 
in Hinsdale, where he has met with good 
success. The building is nicely located and 
well arranged for hotel purposes. In 1879, 
he engaged in farming in Alabama, whither 
he and his family had gone in search of 
health. He has been Assessor one term. His 
farm in York Township is the old homestead 
of his father. 

JOEL TIFFANY, inventor, Hinsdale, was 
born September 6, 1811, at Barkhamsted, 
Litchfield Co., Conn., son of Joel and Han- 
nah (Wilder) Tiffany, natives of Connecticut. 
His father was a builder, and was never in 
affluent circumstances, so that the children, 
all of whom were successful in life, were self- 
made. Our subject taught school and stud- 
ied hard until twenty years of age, when he 
began to read law with William G. Williams, 
at Hartford, Conn., and afterward with 
Charles Olcott, at Medina, Ohio, where, in 
1834, he was admitted to the bar and prac- 
ticed until 1836. He afterward practiced 
for thirteen years at Elyria, Lorain Co., Ohio, 
where he held the position of Prosecuting 



Attorney, in which office he won distinction 
by his vigorous prosecution of horse-thieves 
and counterfeiters. This office he held for 
two terms, when, in 1849, he located in 
Cleveland and practiced two years. He next 
went to Little Mountain, Lake Co., Ohio, 
where he turned his entire attention to the 
law of parents in the United States Courts. 
After fifteenjyears here, he practiced at Al- 
bany, N. Y. , for ten years. From 1865 to 
1868, he was Reporter of the Court of Ap- 
peals, from which labor twelve volumes were 
published. While at Albany, he wrote a 
" Treatise on Trusts and Trustees," and a 
work of " Practice under the New York Code 
of Law," consisting of three volumes; also a 
"Digest of the Court of Appeals," and a trea- 
tise on "Government and Constitutional Law. " 
He has lately published an able work enti- 
tled " Man and his Destiny," and is now pre- 
paring for publication some ideas and com- 
ments on "Agnosticism." In 1870, he bought 
property in Hinsdale, and began exerting his 
active mind in the art of refrigerating; has 
an office in Chicago, to and from which city 
he goes each day. In 1834, he married Car- 
oline M. Tryon, which union resulted in nine 
children, five of whom survive, viz., Mary, 
Mrs. Van Inwagen; Amelia; Martha, Mrs. 
Humimrey; Ella. Mrs. J. B. Page; and Belle. 
His consort died in 1859, in Ohio, and he 
again married, in 1860, to Margaret Mason, 
by whom he has four children, viz., Frankie 
L., Leon J., Wilder and George S. Although 
Mr. Tiffany has been offered positions of hon- 
or" and trust, he has as often refused them, 
being averse to holding office. In the person 
of our subject we have the marked character 
of a self-made man. 

A. L. TENNEY, farmer, P. O. Downer's 
Grove, was born in New Hampshire Febru- 
ary 2, 1845, son of Oliver and Tryphenia 
(Bissell) Tenney, natives of Vermont, he born 



122 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



in 1800 and she in 1807; they are still liv- 
ing, and are the parents of twelve children, 
all of whom are living. Our subject was 
educated in the best schools of his native 
county, and, at about twenty-four years of age, 
engaged in the express business, continuing at 
the same for three years, when he came to 
Illinois and commenced farming, renting 
land for that purpose. He afterward pur- 
chased eighty acres, his present farm, which 
is highly improved. In 1862, he was mar- 
ried to Miss Abbie Daggett, who bore him 
two children, one of whom is living, Myron. 
Mrs. Tenney died in 1869, and in 1870 Mr. 
Tenney married Miss Phyllis Pye, daughter 
of Watts and Mary A. (Goodman) Pye, na- 
tives of England, who came to Du Page in 
1849, settling where subject now lives, but 
who are at present residing in Minnesota; 
they bad eight children, only live of whom 
are now living. From his last marriage, Mr. 
Tenney has had born to him six children — 
Abbie M., Ella T., Watts R, Nettie B., Bes- 
sie P. and Bertha J. The family are mem- 
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
he votes for the best men. Alden and Mar- 
quis, brothers of A. L., were in the late war 
— one in the army and the other in the navy. 
Watts Pye, brother of Mr. Tenney's wife, died 
whilst in the service, member of Company B, 
Eighty-seventh Minnesota Volunteer In- 
fantry. 

ELDRED THATCHER, merchant, Down- 
er's Grove, was born in Susquehanna County, 
Penn., March 8, 1818, son of John and Sarah 
(Moore) Thatcher, he a native of Massachu- 
setts, she of New Jersey; of their six children, 
live are living, viz., Azor, Eldred (subject), 
John, Edwin and Editha. Subject, at the 
age of fourteen, apprenticed to the tanner's 
trade, after learning which he attended school 
three months. In 1831, he moved to La 
Salle County, 111., thence, in 1841, to Down- 



er's Grove. In 1856, he entered the dry 
goods and notion business, continuing in 
business one year, under the lirm name of 
Carpenter & Hatch; afterward, under various 
names, the present firm being Thatcher & 
Crescey. He has a good store and other 
property, which he has made by his own la- 
bors, having only $200 when he located here. 
He was married in 1838; his wife died in 
October, 1855, leaving one child, Mrs. Charles 
Curtis. He married Charlotte Smith, who 
has borne him three children, viz., John, 
Helen and Harvey. Mr. Thatcher has been 
Postmaster in Downer's Grove for nineteen 
years, being commissioned by President Bu- 
chanan; been Township Trustee for twenty 
years, and still holds that position, and has 
been Trustee of the village since its organiza- 
tion, with the exception of one year. He is 
a Republican, his wife is a member of the 
Baptist Church. 

EDWARD VENARD, farmer, P. O. Down- 
er's Grove, was born February 25, 1842. His 
parents, Charles and Catharine (Butler) Ve- 
nard, were natives of Ireland, and came to 
America about 1832, settling in the dense 
forests of New York, where they toiled and 
labored until 1845, when they gathered all 
and started for the West, locating the same 
year on the farm where they now reside. 
Here they again began in the pioneer style. 
Subject's mother died here in 1857; his fa- 
ther is still living, and is very feeble, being 
eighty- two years of age; the names of their 
seven children are as follows : Anastasia, 
Ellen, Charles, Thomas, Edward, John and 
Catharine. Subject was married, February 
22, 1880, to Maggie J., a daughter of Adam 
and Julia Gorman, of Will County; she has 
borne him two children, both deceased. He 
makes some specialty of Durham cattle and 
the Chester White hogs. He has 184 acres 
of finely improved land, the fruit of his early 



DOWNER'S GKOVE TOWNSHIP. 



123 



labors. They are members of the Catholic 
Church at Naperville. 

DR. H F. WALKER, coal-dealer, Hins- 
dale, was born July 17, 1817, in Claremont, 
Sullivan Co., N. H. ; is a son of Solomon and 
Charity (Stevens) Walker; the parents emi- 
grated to Oakland County, Mich., in 1821, 
where they bought a large tract of land; the 
father died in 1857, and the mother in 1859; 
they were the parents of thirteen children, 
nine of whom grew up — Elihu S., Oricy, An- 
drew C, Leander (Methodist minister), Lu- 
cetta, H. F. , J. M. (deceased January, 1881, 
was President of the Chicago, Burlington & 
Quincy Railroad, and attorney). Mi*. Wal- 
ker attended school in the districts in Mich- 
igan and at Pontiac, same State, and for a 
time at Oberlin, Ohio. His younger days 
were spent on a farm and clerking in a store. 
He began reading medicine in 1838, with 
Dr. A. Hudson, of Farmington, Mich., and 
afterward attended the Cleveland (Ohio) Med- 
ical College, graduating there in 1843. He 
began practice at Farmington, where he re- 
mained for nine years, and then retired for a 
short time, on account of poor health. In 
about one year, he engaged as a traveling 
salesman and collector for a wholesale dry 
goods house of New York, which he contin- 
ued for about two years, and again entered 
his profession for one year. He learned that 
his health would not permit him to follow 
his profession he loved so well, and he en- 
gaged in the clothing business with O. F. 
North, at Pontiac, Mich., for about one year 
and a half, at the end of which time he with- 
drew and came to Amboy, Lee Co.. 111., in 
1855, where he remained for ten years. He 
then settled in Chicago, and acted as mana- 
ger of the Chicago & Wilmington Coal Com- 
pany, and is connected with said company at 
the present. Was married, in 1839, to Ath- 
alia N. W'atson, a daughter of Levi and 



Fanny W'atson. He has no children. He 
settled his residence at Hinsdale in 1868, he 
and his brother, J. M., buying at that time 
about three hundred and seventy acres where 
is now Clarendon Hills. They cut the same 
into lots, and, after selling many of them, 
they sold the remainder, but had to take a 
portion back on account of non-payment. 
The Doctor has been Supervisor of Downer's 
Grove Township, and has held other small 
offices. He is now a candidate for the Leg- 
islature from this district. He was first a 
W T hig, and since has been a stanch Republic- 
an. He and.wife are members of the Con- 
gregational Church of Hinsdale; were for- 
merly Methodists, but transferred on account 
of there being no Methodist organization at 
this place. 

ALFRED WALKER, farmer, P. O. Hins- 
dale, was born in Ludlow, Windsor Co., Vt., 
September 6, 1824, son of Josiah and So- 
phia (Pettigrew) Walker. Josiah Walker 
was born in Hopkinton, Mass., March 5, 1793, 
and died at Ludlow, Vt., March 22, 1846; 
his wife, born in Ludlow, Vt., December 28, 
1795, died at Hinsdale, 111., December 12, 
1875; he was a Methodist, she a Baptist; 
they had eight children. Mr. W'alker received 
a limited education, attending school about 
two months each winter season, and, when 
eighteen years of age, hired out at $13 per 
month, and, after working one month, set out 
to look for other employment. He worked 
for a time at various small jobs, then found 
permanent employment in the car works at 
Cambridgeport, Vt., receiving $8 per month 
for the first year, $16 per month the second 
year, and the third year received $1.50 per 
day. His father dying about this time, he 
returned home and hired out by the month 
awhile. In Tinmouth, Vt, March 30, 1847, 
he married Fanny Ann Hopkins, a native of 
that place, born May 24, 1823, who bore him 



124 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



three children — Lincoln, deceased; Clifford, 
who married Nellie Steward at Hinsdale, 111. , 
January 28, 1874; and Lillian Sophia, who 
married Frank L. Wentworth at Hinsdale, 
October 2, 1877. Mrs. Walker's rjarents, 
David and Amanda (Andrus) Hopkins, were 
natives of Wallingford, Rutland Co., Vt., he 
born June 14, 1788, died March 30, 1849, 
at Tinuiouth, Vt. , where also his wife, who 
was born August 30, 1792, died March 31, 
1849; they had fourteen children, six of whom 
are living. Mr. Walker, after his marriage, 
settled on the old homestead farm, renting it 
for awhile, afterward buying it, and finally 
selling it for a county poor farm. In 1853, 
he came to Brush Hills, this county, where 
he started a hotel, in connection with which 
he ran a cheese factory (the first in the State), 
and also dealt in fat cattle. He became 
wealthy, and purchased a large amount of 
property, the greater part of which he still 
owns. He is an active member of the Con- 
gregational Church. 

GEORGE WOLF, farmer, P. O. Hinsdale, 
was born May 14, 1835, in Germany; is a 
son of George and Mary E. (Heintz) Wolf, 
who came to Du Page County from Germany 
in 1847. The family rented land for five 
years, and then purchased where they now 
live. The father had but $40 when he locat- 
ed in this county, but, by hard labor and 
frugality, he amassed quite a little fortune, 
which he divided among his six children. 
The mother is dead, and the father, at the age 
of seventy-five, lives with our subject. The 
parents united early with the Lutheran 
Church. George's school-days were few, he 
commencing early to work at farming, which 
he has since continued; has experienced all 
the hardships incident to pioneer life. In 
1862, he enlisted in Company D, One Hun- 
dred and Fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 
and served till the close of the war; was 



slightly wounded between two fingers; also 
contracted a disease in one of his lower limbs, 
which causes him considerable pain at this 
late day. In 1866, he married Miss Kate 
Faul, by whom he had two children, Eddie 
and Ella; they finally separated, and Mr. 
Wolf, in 1872, again married, the lady being 
Miss Emily Wigant, daughter of William 
and Lottie Wigant. This second union has 
resulted in three children, viz., Louise, George 
and Amanda. Subjectowns 110 acres of well- 
improved land, and some timber in Downer's 
Grove; the residence, which is surrounded 
by a good orchard, is situated on Section 23. 
He and his brother Fred for a time ran a 
threshing machine, which added to their 
finances. The family of Mr. Wolf are mem- 
bers of the Lutheran Church. He votes the 
Democratic ticket. 

FREDERICK WOLF, farmer, P. O Kins- 
dale, was born December 28, 1838, in Ger- 
many, and is a brother of George, whose 
sketch appears in this book. Subject ob- 
tained what little education he could at Dow- 
ner's Grove, but, as soon as he was large 
enough, he was obliged to work on his fa- 
ther's farm; at fifteen, he was an expert at 
mowing. He used to drive four ox teams to 
a plow which his father and brother held; has 
journeyed to and from Chicago with oxen, and 
has, in fact, experienced all the hardships 
of one in limited circumstances in an early 
day. He now has 160 acres of finely im- 
proved farm land, and ten acres of timber 
land; runs quite an extensive dairy, keeping 
twenty-six cows, and selling the milk in 
Chicago. In 1866, he was married to Cath- 
arine Mochel, by whom he has seven chil- 
dren, viz., William, Louisa, Charlie, Emil, 
George, Albert E. and Adelia Mc. Mr. Wolf 
has held the position of Pathmaster. He and 
wife are Lutherans. They are giving their 
children a good education. 



DOWNER'S GROVE TOWNSHIP 



127 



CHARLES WHEELER, farmer, P. O. 
Downer's Grove, was born January 20, 1829, 
in New York, son of Merritt and Rhoda 
(Hyde) Wheeler, and brother of Allen 
Wheeler, whose sketch appears elsewhere in 
this work. Our subject attended school in 
his early youth, but, as he grew older, was 
needed to help work upon the farm. W T hen 
twenty-two years of age, he bought thirty - 
•eight acres of land of his father, and invested 
all of his available means in cattle. He now 
owns 106 acres of well -improved land, the 
result of his economy and good management, 
and makes a specialty of raising Berkshire 
hogs. In 1860, he was married to Miss 
Nancy McMillan, daughter of Andrew and 
Rhoda (Daily) McMillan, and sister to Mrs. 
E. S. Andrews, whose sketch appears in this 
work. This union has been blessed with three 
children — Olive, Orin and Ida J. Mrs. 
Wheeler is a member of the Baptist Church. 
Mr. Wheeler has filled several offices in the 
township, and, although he has seen his full 
share of the hardships of life, now enjoys the 
fruits of his thrift and perseverance. 

ALLEN WHEELER, farmer, P. O. 
Downer's Grove, was born August 29, 1840, 
in New York. His parents, Merritt and 
Rhoda (Hyde) Wheeler, were natives of New 
York, and came to Illinois in 1844, settling 
on a farm west of Downer' s Grove, now owned 
by " Deeder." In 1847, they settled on a 
farm adjoining subject's place, and, in 1875, 
located in Michigan, where they still reside, 
the father being blind. Subject attended 
school but little, and that in a cabin on his 
brother's farm. His parents had nine chil- 
dren — George, Charles, Roxanna, Grace, 
Sarah. Allen, Betsey, Harriet and Albert. 
He clerked awhile in Downer's Grove, and in 
186< >, attended school at Wheaton, this county. 
He enlisted in Company E, Eighth Illinois 
Cavalry Regiment, but, being taken sick with 



the measles, was confined to the hospital at 
Alexandria, thence transferred to Philadel- 
phia, and there discharged, not being ex- 
pected to live. He resumed his studies in 
Wheaton, afterward taught two years, then 
engaged five years for T. M. Avery in the 
lumber business in Chicago. He married, 
in 1864, Elizabeth A. Bateman, who has borne 
him eight children, viz., Clara, Schuyler, Zoe- 
lina, Guy, Claudie, Lynn, Nora and Myrtle; 
the latter two died in 1880, of scarlet fever. 
Mr. Wheeler takes an interest in educating 
his children; is now Clerk of School Board. 
He has been a professor of religion since he 
was seventeen years of age; they attend the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. He has forty 
acres of well-improved land, and makes a 
specialty of fine Durham cattle. He cast his 
first Presidential vote for Lincoln. 

MICHAEL WELCH, farmer, P. O. Gower, 
was born in Ireland April 5, 1824; is the son 
of John and Mary (Burke) Welch, natives of 
Ireland, who came to New York in 1832; 
they had four children, viz., Michael, Han- 
nah, Patrick and John. The father worked 
on a canal and railroad in New York State. 
In 1842, our subject came to Illinois and 
bought a part of his present farm of eighty 
acres, in Downer's Grove Township. This 
land he has improved until now he has one 
of the best improved farms in the township. 
A cabin 16x18 feet, which he at first dwelt 
in, has been replaced by a commodious dwell- 
ing, surrounded by a good orchard. In 1852, 
Mr. Welch married Mary Fleming, by whom 
he has ten children, viz., John, Thomas, Rich- 
ard, William, Harriet, Mary, Catharine, 
George, Arthur and Ann; two are deceased. 
Mr. Welch has held several small offices, and 
takes an interest in all public improvements. 
He and his wife are Catholics. 

ABRAM WELLS, farmer, and present 
Postmaster, Cass, was born in England May 



128 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



1, 1841, and is the son of Robert and Sarah 
Wells, natives of England, who came to New 
York in 1856. Our subject obtained a good 
common-school education in his native place. 
When fifteen years of age, he began to learn 
the shoemaker's trade, at which he worked 
four years. In 1860, he came to the State of 
New York, where he put in tile drains for 
one year. He then came to Du Page County, 
where he worked at farming until August, 
1862, when he enlisted in Company E, Sev- 
enty-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in 
which he remained till the close of the war, 
participating in many hard- fought battles. 
Upon his return home, he again engaged in 
farming. March 15, 1867, he married Mrs. 
Abigail Pitcher, only surviving child of James 
and Elizabeth Hardy, natives of England. 
By her first husband, Mrs. Wells had ten 
children; by Mr. Wells she has none. Mrs. 
Wells' only surviving child, John W. Pitcher, 
was married, July 3, 1879, to Miss Susanna 
Dawson, daughter of John and Anna Dawson. 
They have had one child, Carrie E. Mrs. 
Wells came to this county in 1848, when it 
was in a comparatively wild state. She has 
fed the hungry red man at her own house. 
Mr. Wells has been School Director, Consta- 
ble and Road Commissioner; was appointed 
Postmaster March 4, 1869, and still holds 
that position. The post office is known as 
Cass. He votes the Republican ticket. 

PETER WERTZ, blacksmith, Downer's 
Grove, was born in Prussia, Germany, Jan- 
uary 13, 1850, son of Peter and Maria (Zim- 
merman) Wertz, natives of Germany, and 
both still living, he born November 18, 1818, 
she born August 27, 1822. They raised a 
family of eight children, viz., John. Mary, 
Jacob, Joseph, Peter, Margaret, Clemence 
and William. Subject attended school in his 
native land, and, at the age of fourteen years, 
began learning the blacksmith's trade, which 



he completed, and has since followed. He 
landed at New York in 1867; soon after, en- 
gaged at his trade at Buffalo, where he re- 
mained about a year, and at other points 
in New York State for about eighteen 
months. In 1870, he came to Downer's 
Grove, where he worked twenty- one months 
for John Walton, a wagon-maker; then formed 
a partnership with J. W. Sucher, of this 
place, which partnership, at the end of a 
year, was dissolved. Mr. Wertz then worked 
for awhile with Mr. Sucher, and. in 1874, 
began his present business, which he has 
Bince continued, doing first-class work. He 
purposes adding a large building, in which 
to carry on a wagon and paint shop. He 
was married, January 13, 1872, to Frances 
Noll, a native of Germany, born July 9, 1854, 
daughter of John and Margaretta Noll ; he, 
born in Germany, died September 7, 1869; 
she died January 15, 1861. Mr. and Mrs. 
Wertz have five children — Bertha, ten years 
of age; Francis, eight years; Catharine, six 
years; Maria, three years; and Elizabeth, 
one and a half years. Mr. Wertz owns prop- 
erty in this village to the value o $7,000. all 
of which he has made by his own labors, 
save $2,000, which he inherited. He votes 
the Democratic ticket. He and his wife are 
members of the Catholic Church at Naper- 
ville. 

JOHN WALLACE, farmer, P. O. Downer's 
Grove, was born November 19, 1807, in New 
Hampshire; son of Joseph and Sarah (Mcln- 
tire) Wallace, of New Hampshire, where they 
both died. They had a family of seven chil- 
dren, only two of whom are living — Erastus 
and Sarah, now Mrs. Kibby. Our subject at- 
tended school in the old log cabin; came to 
Downer's Grove in 1839, and engaged in 
farming, pre-empting eighty acres. He now 
has seventy acres, which are well improved. 
In 1833, he was married to Mehitabel Har- 



DOWN Kirs GROVE TOWNSHIP. 



129 



rington, whose parents were James and Mer- 
cy (Sherman) Harrington, natives of Vermont, 
who had a large family. Mr. Wallace has 
five children living — Austin, Garry, James, 
Emma and Alice. He has served as Consta 
ble and is a Republican, but cast his first 
vote for Gen. Jackson. Himself and wife are 
members of the Baptist Church at Downer's 
Grove. His son Garry was a member of 
Company B, One Hundred and Fifth Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry, and served his country 
gallantly for three years of the great struggle 
for the Union. 

WILLIAM E. WARING, farmer, P. O. 
Downer's Grove, was born in New York May 
6, 1818; his parents, Solomon and Affey 
Snedeker Waring, were natives of New York, 
where they reared ten children, viz., Mary, 
Nellie, Harriet, Miranda, Sallie, Magdelia, 
Theodore, Solomon, Tunis and William E. ; 
they were members of the Dutch Reformed 
Church. Subject received more than an or- 
dinary education, having taken up the study 
of Latin, Greek and French; he taught two 
terms at small wages; when twenty-two years 
old, he began merchandising in a grocery 
and feed store, meeting with success. He 
then engaged in the real estate business in 
New York City and State, and, in 1868, went 
to Nevada, Story Co., Iowa, where he en- 
gaged in the same business, meeting with 
some reverses, and, in 1874, went to Chicago, 
whore, also, he engaged in the real estate 
business, meeting with indifferent success. 
In 1881, he bought thirteen acres of land in 
East Grove, this township, where he has since 
remained and is doing well. His children 
are Euphemia (Mrs. C. C. Carpenter, in 
Iowa), Peter, in New York City; John, a 



miner in Colorado, and Richard; two de- 
ceased, John and W r alter. Mr. W. was Rev- 
enue Assessor in New York for four years, 
being appointed by Chase; was Justice of 
the Peace many years and was Captain of 
militia; was once a member of the A., F. & 
A. M. ; he is a Republican, and cast his first 
vote forVanBuren; he has a good home, tine 
orchard and all necessary conveniences. 

VALENTINE WOHLHUTER, merchant, 
Gower; was born December 1, 1825, in Alsace, 
Germany, and is the son of Philip and Sarah 
W r ohlhuter, who reared six children, three of 
whom are living, viz., Philip, Eva and Val- 
entine. The latter obtained his schooling 
in his native place; he came to New York 
State in 1818, and worked by the month till 
1850, when he began selling milk in Chicago 
for a dairyman of that city. At this time 
(1850), he married Sarah Garst, who came to 
Buffalo from the old country when four years 
of age. Our subject and his wife next settled 
at Dutchman's Point, fourteen miles from 
Chicago; here they purchased forty acres of 
land, which, after living upon two years, they 
sold and bought three acres of land where 
they now live. Upon this land, Mr. Wohl- 
huter soon erected a store, which he stocked 
with goods; he has continued in this line, 
doing a good business ever since; he now has 
a full line of dry goods, notions, boots and 
shoes, groceries, hardware and everything 
found in a first-class country store. In Feb- 
ruary, 1869, a post office was established at 
his 6tore. and he was made Postmaster. His 
patrons are a wealthy claps of people, and he 
has a good trade, yet his age demands a rest, 
and he contemplates retiring from, active 
business; he has six children. 



130 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



LISLE TOWNSHIP. 



JACOB AUGENSTEIN, farmer, Naper- 
ville, was born April 15, 1843, in Wayne Co., 
Ind. ; is a son of Rev. C. and Harriet, (Wal- 
lack) Augenstein, the parents of two children, 
viz., Jacob, and John C, a physician at Ba- 
tavia. The parents are living at Freeport, 
where the father is engaged in the ministry 
of the Evangelical Association. The father 
can rightly be called a pioneer, who has seen 
some of the hardships that the early settlers 
had to endure. He bought 114 acres of land 
where the subject now lives, which he still 
owns; he was among the early preachers of 
Chicago; he has given the greater part of his 
earnest life in his ministerial labors to the 
churches. Jacob, of whom we write, was mar- 
ried in 1875 to Susie, a daughter of Jacob 
and Saloma (Arnold) Hirtzel; he is making 
some specialty in raising stock; is in the 
dairy business. 

HENRY L. BUSH, farmer, Downer's Grove, 
was born February 3, 1840, in what is now 
Downer's Grove Township; is the son of Ed- 
win A. and Nancy B. (Stanley) Bush, the par- 
ents of two children — Edwin A. and Henry 
L., our subject. The father, born in Canton, 
N. Y., June 16, 1816, died March 5, 1842; the 
mother, born in New Milford, Penn., Novem- 
ber 26, 1813, some time after her first hus- 
band's death, married Mr. Dryer, who has 
since died. Mrs. Dryer is a sister of L. W. 
Stanley, whose biography appears elsewhere 
in this work. In 1836, in Cass, Du Page Co., 
subject's mother began teaching school in a 
cabin 10x12; in this room were crowded 
twenty-seven scholars, besides the stove, 
which used to be carried out doors and 



emptied when becoming filled with ashes; 
she also taught the first school in Downer's 
Grove; she is now living with her son, Henry 
Bush, the subject of our sketch. During his 
youth, he was in sach poor health that he was 
unable to attend school, but by careful atten- 
tion to his books at home, he obtained a good 
education. At Downer's Grove, August 27, 
1865, he married Miss Calla E. Belden, born 
at Downer's Grove March 24, 1848, daughter 
of N. A. and Fannie (Randall) Belden, who 
came to this county about 1844; her father, 
born in Saratoga County, N. Y. , December 11, 
1819, died April 13, 1864, and her mother, 
born in Cortland Couuty, N. Y., August IS. 
1818, lives in Downer's Grove. This union 
has resulted in two children — Guy L., born 
November 13, 1866, and King M. , born Sep- 
tember 14, 1870 Mr. Bush has 122 acres of 
finely improved land ; he makes a specialty of 
raising cows to supply a dairy which he car- 
ries on. He was Assessor of Lisle Township 
for Beven years, and is now agent for the Chi- 
cago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad at Lactor 
Station, which position he has held for near- 
ly fourteen years. He has always taken an 
active part in the agricultural organizations 
of Du Page County, where he is now Secre- 
tary of a society of that kind. 

S. A. BALLOU, farmer, P. O. Naperville, 
was born October 19, 1828, in Saratoga Coun- 
ty, N. Y. ; is a son of Isaac A. and Hannah 
(Allen) Ballou, the former a native of Mas- 
sachusetts, and the latter of Saratoga County. 
They were the parents of ten children that 
grew up, six of whom are living, viz., O. R., 
Capt. D. W., Malvina and Henrietta, Amelia 



LISLE TOWNSHIP. 



131 



W. and S. A. The mother was a descendant 
of Ethan Allen, the famous "warrior;'' the 
father was a mechanic and farmer; the par- 
ents were Episcopalians. Mr. S. attended 
school in the districts and an academy at 
Cleveland, Ohio. He taught some in Ohio 
and California; his younger days were spent 
on a farm and in a tannery and shoe shop, 
his father having having followed said busi- 
ness for several years. In the fall of 1849, 
he went to New Orleans, and soon engaged 
as a sailor on the barque "Oregon." In 
L850, he began labors in California; was 
mining and merchandising for ten years, 
after which he returned to Du Page County. 
In 1861, was appointed by President Lin- 
coln Captain of C. S. V., which position he 
held during the entire war. His three broth- 
ers, O. R., D. W. and Morgan were in the 
war. On his return from the war, he settled 
on his present farm of 225 acres, which he 
bought in 1S63; was married, 1865, to Julia, 
a daughter of A. S. Barnard, who blessed him 
with oae child, Roy B. His wife died Sep- 
tember 17, 1869; was a Congregationalism 
He was again married, 1875, to Eliza A., a 
daughter of Michael and Mary (Fitzgerald) 
Norton ; her mother is dead ; her father is living 
at the age of ninety three; her parents had ten 
children, four of whom survive, viz. , Thomas 
Gerritt, Mary and Elizabeth A. Mr. Ballouhas 
two children as a result of his last marriage, 
viz., Ralph E. and Mary E. While in Cali- 
fornia, Mr. Ballou was chosen to represent 
his district in the Legislature and Senate; 
used every effort in his power to prevent that 
State from becoming a slave colony; he was 
a reporter for the Legislature, and did some 
excellent newspaper work; has served in 
small offices his share; was Staff Officer for 
Sherman. McDowell and Thomas. Has al- 
ways been an active Republican, and has 
often been chosen by that body as a delegate 



to county and State conventions. He is a 
relative of the Garfield family; is a member 
of the A, F. & A. M. Lodge. 

R. W. BOND, farmer, P. O. Lisle; was 
born in 1847 in Portage County, Ohio; is a 
son of William and Angelica (Woodruff) 
Bond, natives of New York, and parents of 
five children — Josephine (married to Thad- 
dous Cooper), Celia (Mrs. A. Macinturf), 
Janett (deceased), R, W. . and Arvilla, who 
married John M. Wells. The parents came 
to Naperville, this county, in 1850, where the 
father was millpr for Joseph Naper for 
several jears; they moved subsequently to 
Somonauk, De Kalb County, this State, where 
they died, the father in 1869 and the mother 
in 1871 The father was in the war of 1812, 
and was ninety-nine years eight months and 
ten days old at the time of his decease. 
Our subject attended school at Naperville 
and worked on the farm. At the age of six- 
teen, he managed to be received into Com- 
pany H, Seventeenth Illinois Volunteer 
Cavalry, and remained in service three years; 
was a brave soldier. On his return home, he 
engaged in farming with his brother, Will- 
iam, a child by his father's marriage prior to 
that with Miss Woodruff. In 1875, he en- 
gaged as a policeman in St. Louis, Mo., 
which he continued the greater part of three 
years. Was married, November 9, 1879, to 
Maggie, a daughter of Jeremiah and Ann 
Caskey; ber father died in the late war, and 
her mother in Iowa; her parents had three 
children — George, one deceased when small 
and Maggie. Mr. and Mrs. Bond have no 
children. They settled on Mr. D. M. Green's 
farm of 251 acres in 1879, having the exclu- 
sive control of the same, except being in 
partnership with Mr. Greene in a large dairy 
business. He and wife are members of the 
Baptist Church, Downer's Grove. He votes 
the Republican ticket. 



132 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



HON. A. S. BARNARD, farmer, P. O. 
Lisle, was born February 11, 1819, in Mon- 
roe County, N. Y. ; is a son of Timothy and 
Julia (Hills) Barnard; be a native of Connec- 
ticut, born in 1789, and died January 8, 1881; 
she a native of Masachusetts, died in 1864. 
They were members of the Presbyterian 
Church, in which he was an Elder for forty 
years; was Judge of the Courts of Mouroe 
County, N. Y. Our subject obtained a fail- 
education in the schools of his native county. 
In 1838, he came to Du Page County with 
Rev. E. Strong, and entered land where he 
remained for twenty-five years. In 1800, he 
settled on his present farm of 185 acres. He 
was married in 1843 to Miss Elizabeth Ray- 
nolds, daughter of William and Margaret 
(Morrison) Raynolds, natives of Connecticut. 
Mr. Raynolds was a noted sea captain many 
years. This marriage resulted in seven chil- 
dren, viz., Julia, deceased, who married S. 
A. Ballon, a Major in the late war; Timothy 
H., who was a clerk in the Commissary De- 
partment during the late war; Robert It., 
Daniel D., Charles F., Frederick O, Eliza- 
beth and an infant deceased. Mr. Barnard 
has been Supervisor and Town Clerk; he 
honored his county as a member of the State 
Legislature in 1863-04. The family are 
members of the Congregational Church of 
Naperville. 

WILLIAM H. BANNISTER, farmer, P. 
O. Naperville; was born October 15, 1813, in 
Ontario County, N. Y. ; is a son of Asahel 
and Polly (Miles) Bannister, natives of Mas- 
sachusetts, and parents of eleven children, six 
of whom survive, viz., Asahel, Thomas M., W. 
H., Mary, Henry, Dwight and Edwin. The 
parents were Presbyterians; the father was in 
the war of 1812; was a Colonel, and was shot 
in shoulder. Mr. Bannister received a com- 
mon school education, worked on the farm and 
clerkeil for his father in a drv foods stern ^hir- 



ing his younger days, and came to Illinois with 
his brother Albert about 1840. Subject worked 
awhile by the month, and then bought laud 
where he now lives. He was married, in 
1849, to Catharine Leich, a daughter of John 
and Catharine (Kinkid) Leich. natives of 
Pennsylvania, and parents of seven children, 
viz., Lettie, Robert, Belle, Rebecca, Samuel, 
Catharine and Joseph. Mrs. Bannister came 
to Illinois in 1840, in company with all her 
family save her father, who died a little while 
prior to their starting. Mr. Bannister's mar- 
riage blessed him with hve children, viz. , 
Asahel, Willard, Eva, Catharine and Will- 
iam H. Mr. Bannister has 313 acres of fine 
lands, the result of his early days' labors with 
the ox teams and the ancient plows. He 
helped to construct the first schoolhouse in 
his neighborhood; takes an interest in educa- 
tion; votesthe Republican ticket. 

A. B. CHATFIELD, farmer, P. O. Lisle, 
was born November 20, 1810, in Dutchess 
County, N. Y. ; is a son of Sherman and 
Deborah (Wood) Chatfield, natives of New 
York and Connecticut, and parents of six chil- 
dren, viz., Alonzo B., Barak, Minerva, Henry 
H., Eliza and Benjamin F. The parents 
emigrated to this county in 1835, and here 
the mother, who was born in 1791, died in 
1839, and the father, who was bom in 1790, 
died in 1853. The educational advantages 
of oiu' subject were limited. He was married 
in Broome County, N. Y, in 1834, to Mary E. 
Graves, a native of that county, born in 1816, 
daughter of Adam and Lydia (Lin%ley) Graves, 
natives of Connecticut; hedied in 1853; she. 
born in 1780, died in 1840. This marriage 
resulted in ten children, seven of whom are 
still living — Mary, George W. (who was in 
the late war), Edward, Lucy Ann, Alonzo B. 
(clerk in the Treasury Department at Wash- 
ington, D. C. ; was in the late war, and lost 
!,;.; r ivl,f arm jr) fiio bnttln of Blafk River 



LISLE TOWNSHIP. 



133 



Bridge), J. Randolph, Emma, Rosa, Charles 
and Albert; the latter married to Anna 
Lloyd, of Iowa, and has one child. Mr. Chat- 
lield was Constable several years; Justice of 
the Peace eight years; Assessor five years, 
and School Trustee six years. He was the 
first to suggest the name of Lisle Township, 
that being the name of one of the townships 
in his native county; his present home lies 
on the old Indian trail from Batavia to Chi- 
cago. Mrs. Chatfield is a member of the 
Methodist Church of Downer's Grove. Mr. 
Chatfield is a Republican. 

CAPT. ROBERT DIXON, merchant, Lisle, 
was born November 8, 1835, in Belfast, L-e- 
land. His parents, Robert and Mary (Wil- 
son) Dixon started from Belfast to Australia 
in 1834, and were shipwrecked, and returned 
to where they had started from. The passen- 
gers at once brought suit against the owners 
of the ship at Liverpool for damages, and 
while the litigation was going on our subject 
was born. In 1836, the parents landed with 
their family at New York, and thence came 
to Downer's Grove, where the father bought 
land and located. He once had occasion to go 
away from home, and upon returning after 
dark and striking the prairie adjacent to his 
new home, everythingseemedchanged. While 
away, his wife had in some way set fire to 
the grass, and hundreds of acres were con- 
sumed. Mi'. Dixon wandered around for 
many hours, and finally tied his oxen and 
laid down, soon falling into a sleep. He 
awoke with* the sunshine, and on going to a 
little cabin strange looking to him. he there 
was greeted by his wife. The father, born 
in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1804, was one of 
the first temperance men here, and was a 
.Justice of the Peace. He was one of the 
leaders of the Underground Railroad, being 
an Abolitionist when it almost cost a man's 
life to express anything, in that cause. He 



was informed in his own house by a preacher 
that Abolitionists were on the road to hell as 
fast as they could go; the old man had a 
heart that bled for the poor unfortunate ones 
in bondage, and took no fear upon himself. 
He died August 3, 1850, his wife, who was 
born in Enniskillen, Ireland, in 1809, died 
in 1865. Our subject was on the farm until 
twenty-six years old, when he enlisted in 
Company E, Fifty- fifth Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry, as a private, and held every office up 
to Captain, having been appointed one year 
before the close of the war. He was one of 
ten from his regiment who, in no way marked 
or crippled, was in thirty-six heavy battles, 
besides sieges and skirmishes. On his re- 
turn, he engaged in the wood and coal busi- 
ness, under the firm name of Dixon & Glea- 
son, at Chicago. He then formed a partner- 
ship with C. P. Dixon & Co. (brothers) in 
the manufacture of sash and window blinds. 
August 10, 1874, he entered a partnership 
with D. D. Escher in the general dry goods 
business at Downer's Grove, and through the 
unfortunate failing of his partner, P. A. 
Rowland took Escher's place and with him 
Mr. Dixon was successful. In 1881, he lo- 
cated at Lisle, where he has done a lucrative 
business. In September, he closed out his 
stock of goods, and anticipates a home in the 
West. He was married at Downer's Grove. 
December 25, 1869, to Sarah J. Rowland, 
bom inMendon. N. Y., April 5, 1844, daugh- 
ter of Stephen and Celia (Smart) Rowland, 
by whom he has four children, viz.. Maiy C, 
Robert R., Stephen W. and Sarah E. He 
has always been a temperance worker; is an 
active member, as well as his wife, of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church at Downer's 
Grove; was one of the building committee for 
the present church; was voted a resolution 
of thanks for the discharge of his duty 



of Treasurer of said committee. 



h.-.s 



134 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



always been an active and energetic Repub- 
lican. 

J. DUTTER, farmer, P. O. Lisle, was born 
August 2, 1827, in Germany; is a son of Jo- 
seph and Magdalena (Bapst) Dutter. The 
parents came to this county in 1839, and the 
father engaged on the construction of the 
Illinois & Michigan Canal; he died in 1853; 
the mother is living. Our subject is the only 
one of seven children that survive. He had 
little chance of education, owing to the limit- 
ed circumstances of his parents; was married, 
1850, to Theresa Riedy, who blessed him with 
two children — Louisa and Delia. In his early 
days in thi ; county he witnessed the hard 
ships that made up the life of the early set- 
tlers. On one occasion, he hauled a wagon 
load of turnips to Chicago and sold them for 
enough to buy a hoe; and many other like ex- 
periences were attached to him. He has 138 
acres of well improved land, the result of his 
own labors. He and wife are members of 
the Catholic Church of Naperville; he votes 
the Democratic ticket. 

ANDREW DILGER, farmer, P. O. Down- 
er's Grove; was born May 27, 1832, in Ger- 
many, and is a son of George and Mary A. 
(Ehrhard) Dilger, natives of Germany. They 
were members of the Lutheran Church, and 
had eight children, viz., Andrew, Fred, John, 
Christian, Lena, Emma, Godlove, and one 
who died in infancy. The father, born 
April 15, 1801, died September 4, 1870, was a 
soldier in one of the wars of Germany; his 
wife, born February 3, 1806, died October 
25, 1836. Our subject attended school as much 
as was convenient, and early commenced to 
work at farming, which he continued until he 
came to this country in 1852. He borrowed 
money to pay his passage over, and afterward 
liquidated the debt with money earned by 
ar ming for very small wages. By his in- 
u s try and perseverance he now owns 127 acres 



of well-improved land. At Naperville, 111., 
October 28, 1857, Mr. Dilger married Chris- 
tina Shafer, born September 30, 1837, daugh- 
ter of David and Christina (Nusbaum) Shafer. 
natives of Germany. By this unionrive chil- 
dren have been born — Mary A. (Mrs. Henry 
Roth), Emma L., Lydia C, Lizzie R. and 
George M. He is also the guardian of 
George, Mena, Elbert and Samuel, children 
of his wife's sister, Mrs. Mary Hassert; these 
children live with him, as well as a boy, 
Frank Manfelth, whom he is bringing up. 
He, his wife, Mary, Emma and Lydia are 
members of the German Church of Downer's 
Grove, in which Mr. Dilger is serving as Trust- 
ee and Collector. He has held some town- 
ship offices; is a Republican. 

JOHN EICHELBARGER, farmer, Naper- 
ville, was born August 20, 1818, in Lancaster 
County, Penn. , is a son of Jacob and Ann 
(Baker) Eichelbarger, the parents of thirteen 
children, five of whom survive, viz., George, 
Jacob, Michael and Abe. Our subject attend- 
ed school a very little in a log cabin; John be- 
ing compelled to labor on the farm the time 
when he should have attended school. He 
was married in 1838 to Susan HartrunnufT, 
who blessed him with three children, viz., 
Urias, Mary A. and John. He came to Illinois 
in 1870, and bought thirty acres of land where 
he now lives, paying $2,600 for the same. 
He and wife hold a membership of a Pennsyl- 
vania Methodist Church. He votes the Re- 
publican ticket. 

DANIEL M. GREENE, farmer, P. O. 
Lisle, was born November 14, 1807, in Ver- 
mont, son of Richard and Lydia (Latham) 
Greene, natives of Connecticut; he, born about 
1779, died about 1830; she, born about 1776, 
died in May, 1834. They had live children 
— Richard, Lydia, Maria, Daniel M. and 
William H. Aside from the country school, 
Mr. Greene attended an academy; his father's 



LISLE TOWNSHIP. 



135 



vocation was that of a shoemaker, and the son 
had to engage early in rural pursuits. At 
the age of twenty, he bought his time, and 
engaged in making potash and in running a 
mill, which he continued for several years; 
he then taught school in Western New York, 
receiving a compensation of $16 per month 
and board among the patrons. In Ogden, N. 
Y. , November 30, 1834, he married Elizabeth 
Venilea Trowbridge, a native of that place, 
born October 9, 1814, a daughter of Windsor 
S. and Rebecca (Willey) Trowbridge, the par- 
ents of seven children, viz., Elizabeth Ven- 
ilea, Fidelia, Oliver, Martha. Windsor, J. T. 
(the well-known author), and Edward. Her 
parents were Congregationalists. Her father, 
born January 1, 1788, died May 30, 1844; 
and her mother, born October 2, 1791, lived 
among her children until her death. March 
1, 1882, at the age of ninety. Mr. and Mrs. 
Greene have had six children, viz., Edward 
T. (manufacturer and shipper of feed, Chi- 
cago), Maria F. (married to Darius Hunkius, 
ex-Mayor of Galena, 111.), Francis D. (died in 
Company B, Thirty-third Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry), Carrie R. (married to J. W. Scott, 
publisher of the Chicago Herald, and associate 
proprietor of the Daili/ National Hotel Re- 
porter of Chicago), Grace H. (married to A. F. 
Hatch, of the law firm of Hatch & Aldis, of 
Chicago), and Venilea, who died in infancy. 
Soon after marriage, Mr. Greene came West 
and settled where he now lives, and where he 
has 251 acres of finely improved land, the re- 
sult of his own labors. He has served the town- 
ship as Assessor, Trustee, and several other 
small offices; was elected Sheriff in 1839, and 
retired in 1842, having been the first Sheriff 
of the county. The family are members of 
the Baptist Church, of which they are liberal 
supporters. Mr. Greene is a Republican. 

DEACON P. GOODRICH, farmer, P. O. 
Lisle; was born in Benson, Vt., December 13, 



1776; is a son of Simeon and Sarah (How- 
ard (Goodrich, natives of Connecticut, and 
parents of eight children, viz., Emily, Henry, 
Simeon, Lura, Charles, Pomeroy (subject), 
Sarah and Eliza. His father, born Septem- 
ber 11, 1758, died February 7, 1852, was 
Deacon in the Congregational Church for 
many years at Benson, Vt. ; his mother, born 
June 1, 1765, died February 14, 1839. Our 
subject attended the district schools and the 
academy at Castleton, in his native State. 
At twenty-one, he was engaged at farming 
and running a saw-mill: was married in Ben- 
son, Vt., January 2S, 1819, to Lucy M., 
daughter of Oliver and Keziah (Allen) Par- 
melee, natives of Connecticut, and soon after 
started for the West in company with his 
brother, Henry, Isaac Clark, Samuel Good- 
rich and Lester Peet; they stopped for one 
year in Ohio, and then came with their ox 
teams to ' what is now Lisle Township, Du 
Page County. Mr Goodrich took a claim of 
320 acres where he now resides, and while 
he was constructing his log cabin, with dirt 
and stick chimney, his family remained at 
the residence of Mr. Boardman, of Will 
County. It was in this " cabin home " that 
the Indians, then friendly, found a welcome 
resting place. Occasionally the "red skins" 
would get on a spree from the use of too much 
wkisky, and would make the night hideous 
with their yells around this the first house 
in this part of the country. .At such times, 
the squaws would take care of the war and 
game implements, that no harm might come 
to Mr. Goodrich, who was always courteous to 
them. On one occasion, when the " bucks'' 
were on a '"spree," Mr. Goodrich became 
vexed, and taking his gun from the rack 
forced them away. He has by his first wife 
five children, viz., Betsey C, Chauncey M., 
Pomeroy H, Sarah A. and George, deceaseil. 
Mr. Goodrich lost his first wife, and his pres- 



136 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



ent consort is a sister of A. S. Barnard. Sub- 
ject has been Deacon in the Congregational 
Church for fifty years; his family are mem- 
bers of that denomination. Mr. Goodrich, 
with Messrs. Morse and Kichards, built the 
first schoolhouse in his neighborhood. He 
votes the Republican ticket. 

C. H. GOODRICH, farmer, P. O. Naper- 
ville. Mr. Goodrich is another of the pio- 
neers of this county; was born July 31, 1823, 
in Vermont; is a son of Henry and Thankful 
S. (Watson) Goodrich, natives of Vermont 
They came to this county October, 1832, and 
settled for a short time where William B. 
Greene now lives, and later where the sub- 
ject now lives; here the father died on May 
3, 1S41, and the mother about January 12, 
1857; the parents had seven children, five of 
whom came to this county, viz., Eliza (Mrs. 
William Osburnj, T. H, Charles H, Willard C. 
and Martha F. The parents were two of the 
founders of the Naperville Congregational 
Church. Mr. Goodrich attended school some 
in the cabin and for awhile in Chicago. 
Went East in 1840, and while there attended 
school in Benson and Castleton, Burr Semin- 
ary at Manchester, and Middlebury, all of 
Vermont; he then taught for some time; he 
returned to Illinois in 1847, and engaged in 
teaching. Was married, 1851, to P. Jane Tur- 
ner, by whom he had five children — Henry 
H, Ida T., Jennie E., Irving and C. W. (de- 
ceased. He settled, at marriage, where he 
now lives, having 212 acres of well-improved 
land; has three acres of orchard. One of the 
finest schoolhouses constructed in this neigh- 
borhood was located on the northwest cor- 
ner of Mr. Goodrich's farm; it was built by 
John Collins. Henry H., Ida and Jennie 
have each taught school. All of his children 
graduated at the Northwestern College at 
Naperville. He and wife are members of the 
Congregational Church at Naperville. in 



which he is Deacon. He votes the Repub- 
lican ticket. More will be found of the Good- 
rich family elsewhere. 

WILLIAM B. GREENE, farmer, P. O. 
Lisle, was born October 20, 1818, in Madison 
County, N. Y. ; is the son of Richard and 
Ethelinda (Briggs) Greene, natives of Rut- 
land County, Vt ; they removed to Connecti- 
cut by ox teams. The father practiced the 
botanical system of medicine for some time; 
the mother died in 1829 and the father was 
again married to a Miss Pease, resulting in 
two children, viz , one deceased when small 
and Richard L., now a physician in Mis- 
souri. Mr. Greene was one oE three chil- 
dren, viz. , Laura (deceased when seventeen), 
William B. and Spencer (represented his dis- 
trict, in the Legislature of Vermont one term; 
was an attorney). The father died August 
29, 1831. Our subject attended the district 
schools of his native county and awhile at 
the seminary at Castleton, Vt. He taught 
several terms in Vermont, and in Will Coun- 
ty, this State. In 1841, he came to Illinois 
aud engaged in rural pursuits, which he has 
since continued. In 1843, he bought 200 acres 
of land for $1,000 of the widow of Charles H. 
Goodrich, and has since remained on said 
farm, improving it exceedingly. Was mar- 
ried, March 16, 1845, to Harriet E., a daugh- 
ter of Eli and Eliza (Meacham) Meeker, 
natives of Vermont, and parents of three chil- 
dren, viz., Charles H, Harriet E. and Edward 
F. The father was a Congregational minis- 
ter; was a Mason, and by that order was sent 
South to teach in the public and private 
schools. Mr. and Mrs. Greene have been 
blessed with six children, three of whom sur- 
vive, viz., Laura E. (Mrs. Capt. M. Y. Morgan, 
whose husband was of Company — , Thirty 
third Illinois Volunteer Infantry; he gradu- 
ated at the "Normal," McLean County, 111.; 
was Principal of the Naperville Seminary. 



LISLE TOWNSHIP. 



137 



William S. (who married Jessie, a daughter 
of Thomas and Cleantha (Storm) Hibbard, 
natives of New York and residents of Chicago, 
where her father is receiver of the Grand 
Pacific Hotel) and Gertrude M. (at St. Mary's 
College, Knoxville, Knox Co., 111.). Mr. 
Greene has served his township faithfully in 
some of the small offices which are all labor 
and no pay; has been Supervisor, and held 
the office of Township Treasurer thirty years 
in succession. He is Warden in the Protest- 
ant Episcopal Church of Naperville, of which 
organization the family are active members. 

ADAM GESSNER, farmer, P. O. Naper- 
ville. was born August 27, 1833, in Germany: 
is a son of Casper and Margaret (Steperlin) 
Gessner, natives of Germany and parents of 
five children — Henry, Conrad, Catharine. 
Adam and Margaret. Mr. Gessner attended 
school as much as was convenient in the old 
country; became to this county in 1850, and 
engaged for awhile by the month at SI to 
SlO: was chopping wood, etc. Was married, 
1860, to Elizabeth, a daughter of Joseph and 
Susannah (Swilly) Russler, the parents of 
eight children — Elizabeth, Fannie, Rebecca, 
Daniel, Mary, Susannah. Matilda and Joseph. 
Mr. Gessner has nine living children out of 
ten, the result of this union, viz., Clinton, 
Sarah, Joseph, Albert, Henry, Emma, Ida, 
John. Lizzie, Walter and infant. He set- 
tled his present farm of 170 acres in INTO. 
He and wife are members of the Evangelical 
Association of Naperville; votes Republican 
ticket. 

JOHN HEITZLER. farmer, P. O. Naper- 
ville, was born in Alsace February I - .'. 1845; is 
son of Joseph and Frances Heitzler, natives 
of Alsace and parents of four children, viz., 
Frances (Mrs. Fred Polling), Rosa (Mrs. 
J. Seiler), Joseph (living in Henry County, 
111.), and John; parents came to Du Page 
County in 1853, settling where the subject 



now lives, where they died; the mother was 
killed by lightning in the cabbage patch 
August 19, 1879; the father died November 
11, 1881; were members of the Catholic 
Church of Naperville; parents came here in 
poor circumstances, and labored hard to sus- 
tain their family, using the pioneer imple- 
ments and ox teams. Subject attended school 
but little; owing to the limited circumstances 
of the family, he was compelled to hire out at 
the age of twelve at $8 per month, plowing 
with five yoke of oxen; he mowed with scythe 
when quite young. The means obtained by 
his labors were consumed by the family; he 
often hauled corn to Lockport, and sold it at 
30 cents per bushel. He worked with his 
father until his father's death: was married 
May 'J5. 1869, to Kate Seiler. by whom he has 
six children, viz., Joseph, Henry, Frank. Mary, 
Adaline. infant, also one deceased. He has 
about one hundred and seventy acres of well 
improved land, partly timber and partly under 
good cultivation. He has never sought any 
office; the family are members of the Catholic 
Church at Napervi le; votes the Democratic 
ticket; takes interest in education; he ran a 
threshing machine for sixteen years; he was 
in Company D, One Hundred and Fifty-sixth 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry; was out seven 
months; in no battles. 

PHILIP HERBERT, farmer, P. O. Cass, 
was born April 19, 1839, in Germany; is the 
son of Henry and Katharine (Bohrer) Her- 
bert, natives of Germany, who came here Jan- 
uary 12, 1854, settling near where the sub- 
ject now resides. The parents had nine chil- 
dren — Margaret, Katharine, Mary. Philip, 
Henry, Abbie, William. Elizabeth and John. 
The father, who was born June 22, 1801, died 
February 24,1880; the mother, born June 20, 
1807, is living with her son William. The 
parents early united with the Catholic Church ■ 
at Lemont. Our subject attended school but 



138 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



nine days in this country. He teamed for 
three years in Chicago, and the remainder of 
his life has been spent in farming; was mar- 
ried in Milton, January 9, 1866, to Elizabeth, 
a daughter of Joseph and Margaret (Miller) 
Oberhart. She blessed him with six chil- 
dren, four of whom died within two weeks in 
1882 with diphtheria. Their names were — 
Maggie, Katie, Annie and George. Those 
living are Willie and Mary. Mrs. Herbert 
was born in Chicago September 4, 1845; her 
father, born March 11, 1807, died October 
30, 1868; her mother, bom April 25, 1808, 
died April 22, 1870. Mr. Herbert has held 
some minor offices; he and his wife are mem- 
bers of the Catholic Church of Lemont, 111. 
He votes the Democratic ticket. 

FRED HATCH, farmer, P. O. Lisle, was 
born February 5, 1839, in Lisle Township, 
Du Page County, the son of Luther and Laura 
(Kidder) Hatch, natives of New Hampshire, 
and parents of three boys, viz., Fred, Ezra 
(storekeeper at Brooklyn, Iowa), Luther A. 
(farmer in Lynn County, Iowa). The father 
was born February 5, 1S04; came to DuPage 
County about 1832, and bought land where 
Patrick O'Brien now lives, and afterward lo- 
cated permanently where our subject now 
lives; here he died April 22, 1852, having pos- 
sessed 145 acres of well-improved land, which 
he had taken when raw prairie; the mother 
died May 25, 1879. The father was Township 
Treasurer at the time of his death, having held 
the office for many years. Mr. Hatch attend- 
ed the country schools and Wheaton College, 
after whicli he applied himself at teaching 
for nine terms. He was married in Lynn 
County, Iowa. October 12, 1862, to Hannah 
T. Burtis, of Iowa; by her he had two chil- 
dren — Freddie B. (decease;!) and Luther. Mrs. 
Hatch died July 7, 1867, and he was again 
married March 10, 1868, to Anna Ott, a daugh- 
ter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Warner) Ott, 



natives of Germany, and the parents of six 
children, viz., Elizabeth, Franklin, Joseph, 
Anna, Laura and Joseph; her parents settled 
in Milton Township, in this county, about 
1841, where the father died in November, 
184S, and the mother in February, 1849. 
Mrs. Hatch was born May 27, 1S44, in this 
county; she has blessed her husband with six 
children, viz., Frank W. , Clarence R., Rosa, 
Hattie, Harry and Mabel. Mr. Hatch has 145 
acres of finely improved land here, and 120 
acres in Linn County, Iowa. He has held 
some small offices, as Trustee, etc. He is an 
active member of the Congregational Church; 
votes the Republican ticket. His father was 
an early ^Abolitionist. 

MARTIN HINTERLONG, farmer, P. O. 
Naperville, was born June 15, 1841, in Alsace, 
Germany; is a son of Joseph and Celestika 
Hinterlong, natives of Germany, and the par- 
ents of four children — Martin, Antony, 
John, Joseph; the parents were early settlers 
where the subject now lives; here they used 
ox teams and experienced many hardships 
that were attached to the lives of the pio- 
neers. The father died in 1868, and the 
mother followed him two years later. They 
possessed 240 acres; at the time of their de- 
cease, which the children now possess. Our 
subject obtained a fair education; was mar- 
ried January 14, 1869, to Frances Kaefer, a 
daughter of Lawrence and Frances (Neff) 
Kaefer; her parents had three children — 
Josephine, Francis and William. Mr. Hin- 
terlong's union resulted in three children — 
Edward, Frank and Henry; members of the 
Catholic Church; has been Pathmaster ; Dem- 
ocrat; has a dairy of forty cows. 

HENRY HORSTMANN, farmer, P. O. Na- 
perville, was born January 22, 1822, in Prussia; 
his parents, Henry and Dorathy (Jung) Horst- 
mann, were natives of the same country, and 
had nine children, four of whom grew up — ■ 



LISLE TOWNSHIP. 



139 



Henry, Emily, Matilda and Bertha; the par- 
ents were Lutherans. Our subject attended 
school till he was seventeen, and was engaged 
then for a time in merchandising. In 1848, 
he came to New York, and worked awhile for 
a farmer in Ohio. In 1S49, he bought fifty 
acres of land, a part of his present farm of 
200 acres. In 1857, he was married to Maria 
Hammerschmidt, a native of Germany, which 
union blessed him with six children, viz., 
Henry, Adolph, Emily, Julius, Bertha, and 
one deceased. Mr. Horstmann has been 
School Director thirty years in succession, and 
has filled other small offices; he and wife are 
members of the Lutheran Church of Naper- 
ville, in which he holds office. He takes a deep 
interest in education, and is a Republican. 

E. W. HEYNEN, farmer, P. O. Naperville, 
born February 28, 1816, in Germany; is a 
son of John and Margaret (Reth) Hey nen, the 
parents of nine children — Fred, Caroline, 
Minnie, John, Peter, August, Harriet, E. W. , 
Julia; they were Lutherans. Mr. Heynen 
attended school considerable, obtaining a fair 
education; he entered a store room as clerk 
when quite young. In 1841, peddled on com- 
mission, handling all kinds of notions; was 
married in 1841 to Matilda Kreuzer, the result 
being seven children, four of whom survive — 
Robert, Otto, August and A.nnis. Robert is 
farming the home place. Our subject came 
to Illinois in 1848 ; he farmed two years near 
Freeport and then worked with Henry Horst- 
mann for five years. In 1856, he bought sixty 
acres where he now lives, paying $2,000 for 
the same. He and wife are Lutherans; votes 
the Republican ticket; his oldest son, Annis, 
killed in the late war. 

S. D. ICHL, farmer, P. O. Downer's 
Grove, was born July 23, 1853, in Vernon, 
Lake Co. , 111. ; is a son of George and Mary 
(Escher) Ichl, natives of Germany. His par- 
ents came to Illinois, the father in 1830, 



and the mother later; the parents had four 
children — Leanna (Mrs. Fred Gress, farmer, 
Dakota). Libbie, Solomon D. and Reuben; 
they were members of the Evangelical As- 
sociation; the father is living in Lake Coun- 
ty; the mother died October 20, 1866; the 
father aga:n married Mrs. Elizabeth Schnei- 
der, the widow of Jacob Schneider, by whom 
she had two children, viz., Sarah and Henry. 
Pen cannot describe the hardships of the par- 
ents of our subject, and we will only leave 
them to be compared with similar experiences 
mentioned in different parts of this book. 
Our subject is farming 167 acres belonging 
to his uncles, M. E., J. T. and S. D. Escher. 
His brother, Reuben, is working for him, and 
his aunt. Mrs. Lizzie (Faul) Escher is keep- 
ing house for them ; her husband is deceased ; 
the boys are making a specialty of raising 
grain. 

THOMAS JELLIES, farmer and retired 
carpenter, P. O. Lisle, was born December 
31, 1807, in England; is the son of Joseph 
and Sarah (Baker) Jellies, who were the 
parents of twenty children, eleven of whom 
grew up and eight now survive. The par- 
ents lived to be very old; the mother died 
in a rocking chair without a struggle, 
while reading the Bible; she was an active 
member of the Methodist Church. Mr. 
Jellies, our subject, obtained a fair educa- 
tion, and when eighteen years old began the 
carpenter's trade, which he continued the 
most of his life. He was married in 1830 
to Mary A Chapman, by whom he was 
blessed with five children: three survive, 
viz., William, Betsey and Sarah. Mrs. Jel- 
lies died in 184S, and Mr. Jellies was again 
married in 1850, this time to Mary, a daugh- 
ter of Thomas H. and Mary (Marney) Black- 
burn; she was born February 21, 1822, in 
Kentucky, and was first married to James E. 
Smith, the union resulting in three boys and 



HO 



BIOGRAPHICAL 



one girl, viz., Byron, Eugene, Thomas and 
Julia, now Mrs. L. H. Mcintosh, of Califor- 
nia, whose husband owns 4,000 acres of land. 
Mrs. Jellies' first husband died in 1848; her 
marriage with the subject resulted in four 
children — Jennie, Lucy, Bertha and Mary. 
Mr. Jellies put up the first schoolhouse in the 
neighborhood of Lisle. He made a wagon, the 
wheels of which were composed of blocks 
sawn from an oak tree, upon which he hauled 
the logs to the mill, and the lumber for it with 
ox teams to build the rude structure. At this 
building meetings were held, to attend which 
many of the early settlers drove their ox 
teams to their rude wagons and sometimes to 
sleds in the month of July. Mr. Jellies has 
property worth $3,000 near Lisle Station, and 
with his wife enjoys good health at their 
ripe old age. Mr. Jellies is a Republican. 

JOHN KUECHEL, farmer, P. O. Naper- 
ville,.was born January 17, 1840, in Alsace, 
now Germany; is a son of John and Salome 
Kuechel, natives of Germany, where the 
father died, and the mother, emigrated to 
this country in 1856, and died in 1869; was 
a member of the Evangelical Association. 
Mr. Kuechel attended school until fourteen 
year old, at which time he engaged actively 
in rural labor, driving ox team, etc. He set- 
tled with his mother on the land now owned 
by Solomon Mertz, where he remained until 
1864, entering then the ministry in the Evan- 
gelical Association, which he continued with 
unbounded success in different parts of the 
State till 1876, when he withdrew on account 
of ill health; he now devotes his time mostly 
to his line farm of 106 acres, lying a short 
distance north of Naperville; he was married 
to Mary Sembach, which union resulted 
in six children, viz., Adin, George, Charles, 
Samuel, Mary C. and Benjamin. He is now 
Superintendent of the Sunday school of the 
Evangelical Association at Naperville, of 



which organization he and wife are active 
members. Mr. Kuechel is the artificer of his 
own little fortune ; he experienced the loss of a 
father when quite young, and consequently, 
being the only child, had to care for himself 
and mother. He labored for several years by 
the month, and by frugality and energy se- 
cured him a very pleasant home. He has 
taken a deep interest in educating his chil- 
dren. 

HENRY MANBECK, farmer, P. O. Naper- 
ville, was born in Berks County, Penn., Janu- 
ary 14, 1823; his parents removed to Schuyl- 
kill County, Penn., when he was six years old, 
where he lived till 1854. He received a fair 
education in the district schools, and began life 
working on the farm; he also worked at the 
turner's trade two years, but abandoned it for 
farming. April 26, 1853, be married Rachel 
Reed, a native of Schuylkill County, Penn., and 
in the same month moved west to this county, 
where he bought a piece of land about two 
miles east of Naperville, on which he lived till 
about the year 186!t, when he moved to his 
present place, which adjoins the northeast corner 
of the corporation of Naperville; here he has 
lived ever since. Of his seven children only 
five are now living. He is a Republican, and a 
member of the Evangelical Church. 

J. R. McMILLEN, Station Agent and Post- 
master, Lisle, was born September 4, 1830, in 
Union County, Ind., and was raised in Ohio; 
is the son of James W. and Cynthia A. (Mil- 
ler) McMillen, he, a native of South Car- 
olina, born October 31, 1796, died in Illinois 
February 26, 1868; she a native of Shelby 
ville, Ky., born in August, 1806, died in Ohio 
August 23, 1843. Our subject availed him- 
self of such educational advantages as the din 
trict schools afforded. At twenty years of 
age, he commenced working on the Illinois 
Central Railroad track, where he continued 
two years, after which he learned the trade 



LISLE TOWNSHIP. 



141 



of brick-laying; after working at his trade 
four years in Bloomington, he settled in Ches- 
ter, Randolph County, where he continued 
his trade successfully; while at work on a 
railroad depot, he fell, breaking both his 
lower limbs, one of which was amputated 
above the knee. As soon as he had sufficient- 
ly recovered to labor, he was employed in a 
railroad office in Chicago. In 1866, he was 
appointed agent for the Chicago, Burlington 
& Quincy Railroad at Lisle, which position 
he has since beld. In 1867, he was commis- 
sioned Postmaster. At Macomb, 111., Septem- 
ber 13, 1859, he married Martha A. Hawkins, 
born in Reading, Vt., March 11, 1840, a daugh- 
ter of John S. and Martha (Morrison( Hawk- 
ins, natives of Vermont. This union has re- 
sulted in live children, viz., Edward W., aged 
nineteen years; John F., seventeen years; 
Charles A., twelve years; Fletcher H. , ten 
years; and Anna M., who died in infancy. 
Mr. Millen was Justice of the Peace three 
years, and is now in his seventh term as 
Town Clerk. By his industry, he has secured 
a good property worth about $1,800. His 
wife is a member of the Baptist Church, he 
of the Congregational, in the Sunday school 
of which he is Superintendent; he is a stanch 
Republican. 

SOLOMON MERTZ, farmer, P. O. Lisle. 
was born July 12, 1813, in'Pennsylvania: is 
a son of Henry and Hannah Mertz, the par- 
ents of eighteen children, six of whom still 
survive, viz., Solomon, Charles. David, Elias, 
JMward and Mary. The father was in the 
battle of Lexington, the beginning of the 
Revolutionary war. Mr. Mertz obtained a 
good education, and worked at farming, 
which occupation he began on his own re- 
sponsibility on attaining his majority. In 
1834, he married Lucy, daughter of Solomon 
Butts, of Pennsylvania; she died in 1854, 
having borne eleven children, seven of whom 



are living; they are Solomon, Frank, Will- 
iam, Owen, Henry, Louisa and Mary. Mr. 
Mertz was again married in 1856 to Saloma, 
daughter of Jacob and Saloma (Repps) Rehm. 
Mr. Rehm died December 28. 1881 ; his wife, 
at the age of sixty-seven, lives with the sub- 
ject. Mr. Mertz has by his second wife nine 
children, viz., George, Daniel, Edward, Alice, 
Amelia, Delia, Ida, Ella and Lula. Mr. Mertz 
settled where he now lives August 11, 1845; 
he has 350 acres of well-improved land in 
this county, and 160 acres in Kankakee 
County. Mrs. Mertz is a member of the 
Evangelical Church, and Mr. Mertz of the 
Lutheran; he was one among the noted 
hunters of this county; he is a Republican. 

D. H. NARAMORE, retired farmer, P. O. 
Downer's Grove, was born in Benson, Rutland 
Co., Vt., December 10, 1803; son of Joel and 
Electa (Clarke) Naramore, natives of Pitts- 
held, Mass. Joel Naramore, who was born 
October 1, 1767, died at Sackett's Harbor, N. 
Y., June 13, 1813; his wife, born October 29, 
1764, died March 3, 1844; she was a member 
of the Congregational Church. They were 
the parents of eight children, four of whom 
are living, the eldest being eighty-seven, the 
youngest seventy-three years of age. Mr. 
Naramore., at twenty-one years of age, appren- 
ticed to the blacksmith's trade in Benson, 
Vt., which trade he followed for ten years or 
more. In 1835, he came by boat and stage 
to Ohio; afterward settled at Lisle Township 
this county (then Cook County), paying $1,000 
for a claim of 280 acres, which he farmed till 
1876, when he moved to Downer's Grove, 
where he has since resided. In this county, 
February 12, 1837, he married Eunice K. 
Peet, born July 24, 1815, in Poultney, Rut- 
land Co., Vt. , who came to Lisle Township 
and stayed with her brother Lester, who 
taught the first school in this county at Naper- 
ville; she is a daughter of Wheelock and 



142 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



Alcy (Hickok) Peet, he a native of Bethle- 
hem, Conn., born April 28, 1774, died July 
29, 1860; she was of Williamstown, Mass., 
born September 12, 1775, died October 20, 
1832; the parents of six children, of whom 
three are living, the eldest being seventy- 
eight, the youngest sixty-six years of age. 
Mr. and Mrs. Naramore are the parents of 
five children, of whom two are living — Lucy 
A. (married John Stanley) and Lester P. (mar- 
ried Eppie M. Pinches). Mr. Naramore has 
always been a stanch advocate of temper- 
ance; his wife is a member of the Congrega- 
tional Church; when she first came to this 
county the Indians were quite numerous. 

HENRY NETZLY, farmer, P. O. Lisle, 
was born in Lancaster County, Penn., Septem- 
ber 21, 1832; is the son of Jacob and Mary 
(Mentzer) Netzly, who came to this county 
in 1851, settling where the subject now lives, 
and where the father died in 1868; the 
mother is living in Chicago. The parents 
had fourteen children, viz., Urias, Henry, 
Susan, Betsey, Sarah, Mary, Jacob, John, 
Daniel, Samuel, Lenaus, Franklin, Lydia 
and Lucinda. Mr. Netzly obtained a fair ed- 
ucation, and the greater part of his life has 
been that of a farmer. He came to Du Page 
County with his parents by steamboat; for a 
few years the family did all their tilling of 
the soil and hauling of grain to Chicago by 
means of ox teams. Mr. Netzly was married 
in 1855 to Catharine Brossman, born October 
14, 1836, daughter of Jacob and Leo (Grill) 
Brossman, natives of Pennsylvania; they 
were Lutherans, and came to Naperville, 111., 
in 1854. They had twelve children, all of 
whom are dead, except four, viz , Jacob, Mar- 
tin, Catharine and Lydia; the father is dead; 
the mother is living. Mr. and Mrs. Netzly 
have had nine children, viz., Adelia, Rufus, 
Mary, Laura E. , Ira, Lydia, Marvin, who 
was drowned June 10, 1882, in the Du Page 



River, and Jared and Horace, also deceased. 
Mr. Netzly owns 300 acres of fine land, most- 
ly the result of his own labors; he and wife 
are members of the Baptist Church; he is a 
Republican. 

MORIS NEFF, farmer, P. O. Naperville, 
was born in September, 1822, in Alsace, Ger- 
many, son of Martin and Catharine (Craver) 
Neff, natives of Germany, and the parents of 
four children — Moris, Martin, Joseph and 
one deceased; the parents were Catholics. 
Mr. Neff attended school during his younger 
days, and came to America at an early day. 
He mined in California from 1850 to 1851; 
he served during the Mexican war, being in 
every engagement from Vera Cruz to Mexico. 
In 1849, Mr. Nell', married Helena Frederick, 
who blessed him with seven children — Adam, 
Andone, Henry, Moris, Victor, Allen and 
Katie. Mr. Neff settled on his present farm 
of 104 acres in 1852; he put up a store 
building costing $2,000. The family are 
members of the Catholic Church. Mr. Neff 
has plowed with the ox teams, and has wit- 
nessed the varied scenes of pioneer life; he 
is a Democrat. 

JOHN NADELHOFFER, farmer, P. O. 
Naperville, was born July 10, 1836; is a son 
of John and Magdalena (Operline) Nadel- 
hoffer, the parents of five children, viz., 
Magdelena, John, Mary (Mrs. John Earhardt), 
Charles and Saloma ; the parents were Luther- 
ans; the father was a wagon-maker. John 
attended school during the winters until 
fourteen years old, when he hired out at small 
wages; he came to America in 1856, and en- 
laced on a farm for John Christie, of this 
county, at $12 per month. In 1863, he rented 
of Alois Schwartz for two years, afterward of 
D. Sleight and James Wright; he then bought 
143 acres where he now lives, and has since 
remained there, improving the same; he pos- 
sesses 150 acres, the result of his own labors; 



LISLE TOWNSHIP. 



145 



"was married August 16, 1856, to Catharine 
Krantwasser, the result being eight children, 
viz., Catharine (Mrs. J. D. McMahan), John, 
Daniel, Lena (Mrs. J. Seiles), Julia, Emma 
and Bertha. Mr. Nadelhoffer has been no 
office seeker, but is now Constable of Lisle 
Township. The family belong to the Lutheran 
C hurch of Naperville ; he votes the Democratic 
ticket. 

JACOB OFFEELE, farmer, P. O. Naper- 
ville, was born September 28, 1844, in Alsace, 
France, now Germany; is a son of John J. and 
Marie Salome (Yagel) Offerb, also natives of 
Alsace, France, now Germany, who came to 
Pennsylvania in 1855, and to this county in 
1865. The father, born April 10, 1811, died 
February 18, 1881, and the" mother, born 
May 28, 1813, died August 8, 1876; they had 
three children, viz., Adam, Jacob and Adolph; 
the parents were Lutherans. Mr. Offerlo at- 
tended the country schools, and was married 
at Naperville March 19, 1S6S, to Wilhelmina 
Rippe, born December 12, 1850, only child of 
Henry and Marie D. (Bosenwinkle) Rippe, 
natives of Hanover, Germany, who came to 
Illinois in 1S56; the father was a tailor, and 
worked in Naperville. Mr. and Mrs. Offerle 
have five children — William Frank, born De- 
cember 17, 1868; Marie Dorothy, born May 
2'.). 1870; Henry Adolph, born Jan. 29,1872, 
died May 27, 1872; Hannah Lovine Clara, 
born August 12, 1874, and Henry L., born 
May 16, 1879. Mr. Offerle has ninety acres 
of well improved land; he and wife are 
Lutherans. Mr. Offerle' s brother Adolph 
was born December 20, 1847, and was married 
in]lS72 to Matilda Rosenwinkle, by whom he 
had five children — Frank, Alfred, Amel, 
Adolph and Amelia. 

F. S. ORY, farmer, P. O. Lisle, was born 
January 12, 1818, in Germany; is the son of 
Ferdinand Ory, and one of five children, and 
the only boy; he attended school some in his 



childhood days; he came to Illinois in 1844, 
and bought 200 acres where he now resides 
at $15 per acre. He now possesses 300 acres 
of well improved land, the result of his own 
labors; was married to Josephine Doael, and 
has eight children living of a family of 
eleven, viz., Antres, Atwal, Adaline, Joseph- 
ine, William, Ferdinand, Mary and Louise; 
has used the ancient farm implements and 
driven ox teams, hauling oats to Chicago, 
and selling them at 13 cents per bushel. He 
has twenty-eight cows, and runs a dairy. He 
and wife are members of the Catholic Church 
at Naperville; he votes the Democratic 
ticket. 

MRS. ROSELLA PUFFER, Downer's 
Grove, was born in Rensselaer County, N. Y. ; 
she is the daughter of David and Lavina 
( Wilkinson) Kinyon, natives of New York 
State, and the parents of seven children. 
The father died in 1826; the mother is still 
living. In her younger days, Mrs. Puffer 
lived with her cousins, Loring and Grenell. 
In 1843, she married Reuben Puffer, a son of 
Henry and Lusani (Wilson) Puffer. Soon 
after their marriage, they came to Du Page 
County, and settled where subject now re- 
sides. Their first purchase was eighty-five 
acres of farm land, and they have since 
bought fifty acres of timber land in Milton 
Township. Mr. and Mrs. Puffer had ten chil- 
dren — Edwin, a stenographer in Chicago; 
Elmer, a manufacturer of telegraph apparatus 
in Chicago; Frank, a merchant in Chicago; 
Leonard R., engaged with his brother Elmer; 
William, Hattie and Genevieve, all at home. 
Two of their sons were in the late war; they 
were George, who died in the service, and 
Charles, who died in Iowa in 1867. Mr. 
Puffer died of heart disease in 1867. He and 
his wife experienced all the hardships of pio- 
neer life. The Puffer family are active Re- 
publicans. She is an active member of the 



146 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



Baptist Church, and the family are possessed 
of tine literary accomplishments. 

THOMAS PELLING, farmer, P. O. Lisle, 
was born October '25, 1812, in England; is a 
son of James and Jane (Belchambers) Poll- 
ing, who came here in 1843, settling where 
Netzley now lives. The parents had five 
children, viz., John, James, Thomas, William 
and Jane; parents were Baptists. Our sub- 
ject obtained but little education, owing to 
some financial disappointments of his father. 
Mr. Polling worked out by the year, the com- 
pensation varying from $60 to $85; he came 
to this county with his uncle, William Bel- 
chambers, who was afterward killed by a 
team running away with him. Mr. Pelling 
worked for awhile in New York with his 
brother at blasting rock. He was married in 
1850 to S. Karfer, who blessed him with nine 
children, viz., Mary, Fred (was married No- 
vember 23, 18S0, to Frances Hitzler, and has 
one child, Iny), Angeline, Frank, Lawrence, 
Adaline and Ida A. In 1872, Mr. Pelling 
settled on his present farm of 113 acres; he 
makes a specialty of running a dairy; his 
wife is a Catholic; he votes the Democratic 
ticket. 

E. E. PAGE, farmer, P. O. Naperville, was 
born December 28, 1824; is a son of Samuel 
and Judith (Elliott) Page, natives, the father 
of Massachusetts, and the mother of New 
Hampshire; the parents emigrated to Kane 
County, 111., in. 1838; there the father died 
December 28, 1839, with the small pox; he 
was the father of six chicken, viz., E. E., 
Clarissa and Harriet, and three deceased. 
The mother was married a second time to 
Nathan Williams, of Naperville, and the re- 
sult was one child; she died about 1865; was 
a Methodist. Mr. Page attended school in a 
log cabin Kane County. At the death of his 
father, he went to live with William Leonard, 
of Jo Daviess County, and in two years came 



to Du Page County, and made his home with 
the father of Judge R N. Murray. While 
here he had the privilege of attending 
school at Naperville, one and one-half miles 
distant. He afterward attended the school 
at Warrenville. In the spring of 1844, he 
engaged as a farm hand for John Dudley at 
$9 per month. At the expiration of six 
months he took service on a farm in Kane 
County at $12 per month. He labored, prior 
to that with Dudley, eleven months with 
Murray, spoken of above. In 1847, he en- 
gaged in the lumber business in Michigan; 
bought forty acres of land in Du Page Coun- 
ty in 1845 and 1846; he worked on the old 
Hobson mill dam across the Du Page River 
in 1849 ; was married, 1852, to Elizabeth Hob- 
son, which union resulted with three children, 
one living — Albert, married Florence Moody 
and has two children, Ethel and Lottie A. 
Mrs. Page was born in 1832; she settled 
with her husband for a short time in Milton 
Township, and then in 1853 came to then- 
present farm of 150 acres well improved, and 
with a large stone quarry; was elected Jus- 
tice of the Peace, 185S; enlisted in Company 
K, Thirteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry; 
was First Sergeant; was elected Supervisor 
of Lisle in 1866, and held the office for nine 
years; votes the Republican ticket. 

ALONZO PALMER, farmer, P. O. Lisle, 
was born August 4, 1842; is a son of Riley S. 
and Nancy W. (Richards) Palmer. His parents 
came to this county in 1S55, settling on the 
Charles Parmelee farm; here the mother died 
in 1872; the father is now living in Nash- 
ville, Washington Co., this State. The par- 
ents had eight children, viz. , Mrs. C. P. Hatch, 
Alonzo, Allen, Mehetable, Mary V. (Mrs. 
George Schriver), Rosotta V. (Mrs. Perry 
Boucher), and Anna (Mrs. Elwood). Mr. Pal- 
mer attended school but little, owing to the 
limited circumstances of the family. He 



LISLE TOWNSHIP. 



147 



learned carpentering, and worked at the same 
for many years; was married in 1878 to Ella 
F., a daughter of John and Lucy (Peet) Rich- 
ards, now residents of this county. This 
union blessed him with two children, viz., 
Emma L. and May; he enlisted in Company 
B, One Hundred and Fifth Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry; was in several hard engagements; 
votes the Republican ticket. 

JOHN PHILIPP, farmer, P. O. Downer's 
Grove, was born October 5, 1854, in Gran- 
ville, Putnam Co., 111. ; is the son of Martin 
and Eve (Rohner) Philipp, natives of Germany 
and the parents of one child — John, our sub- 
ject; they came to Illinois in 1850. The 
father died in 1855, and the mother was sub- 
sequently married to Herman Pilz, by whom 
she has three children — Henry, Edward and 
Albert. The mother settled immediately 
after her marriage with Mr. Pilz, in Lisle 
Township, where they have since lived. Our 
subject remained on the farm with his father 
until 18S1, when he was married to Sarah 
Hoehn, and has one child — George. Mr. 
Philipp has forty acres of well-improved 
land, the result of his own labors. He and 
wife are members of the German Methodist 
Church of Downer's Grove. 

ELIJAH ROOT, farmer, P. O. Downer's 
Grove. The subject of these notes was born 
September 26, 1821, in Benson, Rutland Co., 
Vt. ; is the son of Martin and Abigail (Stearns) 
Root, who came to this county in 1843. set- 
tling where the subject now lives, and were 
the parents of six children — Emily, Maria, 
James (deceased), Amos, James, Elisha. 
The parents were members of the Congrega- 
tional Church, in which the father was Dea- 
con. The father of the mother of Mr. Root 
was a Revolutionary soldier; was under the 
command of Gens. Sullivan and Burgoyne; 
was engaged in the surrender of Cornwallis 
at Yorktown. Our subject, who is the only 



one living of his father's family, attended 
school as much as was convenient; he had 
the advantages of a select school at Benson, 
Vt. He was married September 6, 1853, to 
Jeannett, a daughter of Oliver and Jane Kin- 
yon, the result being eight children, viz., Al- 
mah J., Arthur-, Charles, Emma, Leonard, Al- 
bert (deceased), James (deceased), Helen (de- 
ceased). He settled on his present farm in 1842, 
buying eighty acres of the same, in 1844. He 
has now 147 acres of finely improved land, the 
attainment of his own labors. He went to 
California in 1851, where he mined with fair 
success for two years. He crossed the 
Isthmus of Panama when the people were 
dying there by the hundreds. Possessed of 
that characteristic that prompts a man to care 
for others as he would have them care for 
him, he with his strong arm carried many of 
the weak, sick and distressed ones from the 
hot, broiling sunshine to the shades of some 
isolated peak or small building, there to await 
death's summons. His official positions have 
been few but important; he has served the 
township faithfully for several terms as As- 
sessor, and is now in his eighth term as Jus- 
tice of the Peace; he has also held his share 
of the small offices, where it is all labor and 
no pay. He has experienced a few of the 
hardships that were to be endured by the pio- 
neer; he hauled oats to Chicago with ox 
teams, and sold at 10 cents per bushel. He 
makes a specialty of manufacturing sorghum 
molasses, having an elegant evaporator of 
the best construction; he brought the first 
sample of sorghum molasses to this county: he 
hauled the first load of merchandise to Down- 
er's Grove, for Henry Carpenter. His active 
mind never finds rest, and he has obtained a 
knowledge of law sufficient to practice before 
any justice court; he is an active Republican. 
JOSEPH RANOK, farmer, P. O. Naper- 
ville, was born A])ril 23, 1844, in Lancaster 



148 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



County, Penn. His parents, Joseph and Mar- 
garet Ranck, were natives of the same State; 
the mother came here in 1865, and lives with 
our subject; the father died in 1869 ; the par- 
ents were blessed with eight children — Jona- 
than, Samuel, Elizabeth (Mrs. Lewis), Emery, 
Amos and Joseph, and three deceased in in- 
fancy. The Ranck family emigrated to Penn- 
sylvania about 1740. Mr. Ranck attended 
school in the country academy at Waynesburg, 
Chester Co., Penn., and State Normal at Mil- 
lersville, same State; he taught some time; 
he clerked and kept store in Naperville two 
years, and the remainder of his life has been 
spent on a farm; was married to Francis E. 
Higgins, the result being two children, de- 
ceased; wife died in 1870; was married a 
second time in 1875 to Rebecca, a daughter 
of David and Susannah (Boyer) Frost, natives 
of Lebanon County, Penn. ; her parents came 
to this county in 1850, and twelve of their 
thirteen children survive — John, Elizabeth, 
Daniel, George, Susannah, David, Rebecca, 
Henry, Samuel, Jacob, Simon, Clara. Mr. 
Ranck has two children as a result of his last 
marriage — Elmira and Clarence; he has 115 
acres of well-improved land, which he bought 
in 1866; he is running a dairy; he and wife 
are members of the Evangelical Association 
of Naperville; he votes the Republican ticket; 
has served in some small offices. 

RICHARD RICKERT, farmer, P. O. Naper- 
ville, was born October 18, 1831, in Schuyl- 
kill County, Penn. ; is a son of Samuel and 
Mary (Green) Rickert; the mother died in 
1844, having blessed her husband with six 
children, viz., Hannah, Richard, Edwin, 
Alexander, Matilda and Alfred. The father 
married a second time to Esther Deibert, re- 
sulting in no children. The father was a 
minister of the Evangelical Association; he 
also merchandized and shipped coal; is living 
in Naperville. Richard had some school ad- 



vantages in his younger days; his life has 
been that of a farmer; he came to this coun- 
ty in 1854 with his father's family, and his 
wife, Sophia, a daughter of George and 
Esther (Shiffert) Wenner, whom he had mar- 
ried in 1853; she was one of seven children 
— George, Esther, Mary, Clarissa, Peter, 
Lydia and Sophia; her father died when she 
was small; was Lutheran, to which organiza- 
tion her mother belonged. Mr. Rickert's re- 
union gave him six children, two of whom 
have been stricken from life's roll on earth; 
the four living are Mahlon, Emma, Irvin and 
Mary. His wife died in 1869, and he was 
subsequently joined in marriage with Susan 
Kramer, a daughter of Mrs. William Stark, 
by whom he has four children, viz., Matilda, 
William, Truman and Addie L. In 1860, 
he located-on his present well-improved farm 
of 116 acres, in Lisle Township, mostly the 
result of his own efforts. He has served in 
some small offices; enlisted in Company D, 
One Hundred and Fifty-sixth Illinois Volun- 
teer Infantry; votes the Republican ticket; 
takes an interest in educating his children; 
he and wife are members of the Evangelical 
Association at Naperville; his wife's parents 
live with the subject; her mother is blind. 
Mahlon, the son of Mr. Rickert, is employed 
in the Atchison, Topeka& Santa F6car works 
at Kansas City, and Emma, his daughter, is 
the wife of John Slick, a fireman on the Chi- 
cago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. 

J. W. STEININGER, farmer, P. O. Naper- 
ville, was born October 11, 1836, in Pennsyl- 
vania; is the son of George and Mary (Moose) 
Steininger, who emigrated to Du Page County 
at an early day. They were the parents of 
five children — Rebecca, Tillman, J. W., Catha- 
rine and Lizzie. The mother was born May 
1, 1806, and died August 29, 1870. The 
parents were members of the Evangelical 
Association. Mi - . Steininger attended school 



LISLE TOWNSHIP. 



149 



some in his native State; he emigrated here 
with his father's family in 1843; he was 
married in 1S63 to Rebecca Ressler, a 
daughter of Joseph and Susannah Ressler, 
which union blessed him with six children — 
Alwin, born July 22, 1864, died August 11, 
1870; Emma, born November 5, 1S66, died 
August 7, 1870; Glistie, born January 25, 
1870, died August 30, 1870; Hattie, born 
October 22, 1871; Annie, born April 24, 1874; 
Charlie, born July 12, 1876. Mr. Steininger 
settled on his present farm of ninety-three 
acres in 1874, which is well improved, and 
the attainment of their own labors, save 
about $2,000 inherited by his wife. He and 
wife are members of the Evangelical As- 
sociation; takes an interest in education; has 
a dairy; votes the Republican ticket. Mrs. 
Steininger was born in 1843 in this county; 
her parents came here 1842; her mother 
brought five dozen eggs from Pennsylvania, 
thinking that such an article could not be 
found here. She remained overnight at what 
is now the Page residence, and the next 
morning carried Mrs. Steininger in ber arms 
a distance of two miles, together with a 
broom, to the place of their choice, a cabin 
12x16, which for awhile contained three 
families. Since the above was written, Mrs. 
Steininger sends us the following, which we 
insert in her own language: "The threshers 
had come, and hands being scarce and wages 
high, mother not only cooked for them but 
helped to thresh. The required amount of 
' chips ' were gathered, by which a fire was 
kept up, and over it was hung a kettle filled 
with beef. Giving her three children, the 
eldest bsing five, the command to feed the 
fire, she locked the door to prevent our get- 
ting lost on the prairie, and went to help the 
threshers; the only thing we could see was 
the cloud of dust from the machine. It was 
getting dark when mother returned, but she 



hastily changed her threshing suit for her 
'home-made blue,' and soon bad supper wait 
ing. In the meantime, two ministers of the 
Evangelical Association called. Mother was 
an active member of that organization, and 
on this same evening determined to attend 
the prayer maeting at some distance. Father 
was opposed to her going, but she had the 
ministers remain for supper, and after all 
were seated she took a bowl of soup and a 
slice of bread, and left them to enjoy their 
meal while she ate her supper on the road to 
prayer meeting. " Mrs. Steininger's par- 
ents were blessed with eight children —Betsey, 
Rebecca, Mary, Daniel, Matilda, Joseph, 
Pianah, one dead. 

MARQUIS L. SARGENT, farmer, P. O. 
Naperville, was born January 30, 1833, in 
Michigan. His parents were John and Irene 
(Sweet) Sargent, the father a native of New 
Hampshire, and the mother of the State of 
New York. They had seven children, six of 
whom now survive, viz., Louisa (Mrs. Judge 
Murray), Silvester (grocer in Chicago), Cleo 
C. (Mrs. Wright), M. L., Walter A. (police- 
man in Chicago) and Sarah M. (Mrs. W. 
Marvin). The parents emigrated to Mich- 
igan at an early day, and to Illinois in 
1837, settling where the subject now lives. 
The father died in 1867; he was in the war 
of 1812 as a Sergeant. The mother died in 
1876; she was a member of the Congregational 
Church. Mr. Sargent attended school in 
the country and at Naperville; he has spent 
the most of his active life on a farm. In early 
manhood he went to California, where he re- 
mained for a few years, and then returned to 
his present farm of 145 acres of well-improved 
land, on which he makes some specialty of 
stock raising. He was married in 1860 to 
Lois M., daughter of Henry and Lois (Royce) 
Ingalls, the parents of twelve children. Mr. 
Sargent was blessed with five children bv his 



150 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



marriage, two living, viz., Earl and Lorene 
A. Mi's. Sargent is a member of the Con- 
gregational Church of Naperville. Mr. Sar- 
gent is a member of Naperville , Lodge, No. 
81, I. O. O. F., and votes the Democratic 
ticket, having cast his first Presidential 
vote for Franklin Pierce. Mr. Sargent is 
educating his children in the Northwestern 
College. 

L. W. STANLEY, farmer. P. O. Downer's 
Grove, was born May 14, 1826, in Susque- 
hanna County, Penn. : is a son of Dexter 
and Nancy (Capron) Stanley, the former a 
native of Massachusetts, and the latter of 
Pennsylvania. Our subject is a brother of 
Mrs. Dryer, the mother of H. L. Bush, whose 
biography appears elsewhere. Mr. Stanley 
attended school in a cabin which stood where 
the residence of Mrs. Curtis, of Downer's 
Grove, now stands, his instructor being Nor- 
man G. Hurd. He has devoted his life'to 
farming, save four years, from 1850 to 1851, 
when he was mining in California, with his 
brother D. C. and Amos and Albert Adams. He 
settled on his present farm of 1 30 acres in 1 854, 
and has improved the same from the "raw" 
state to that of one to be desired by the most 
tasteful. In 1854, he married Helen, a daugh- 
ter of Aaron K. and Maria (Ford) Farr, the par- 
ents of seven children, viz., Helen, Edward, 
Mary, George. Frances. Ida and Charles; 
her parents came to Downer's Grove in 1842, 
where the father died subsequently, and the 
mother is living with the subject. Mr. Stan- 
ley has three children living, from a family 
of five, viz., Arthur F., Mabel and Louie; 
the former is working for the Western Eclec- 
tic Manufacturing Company of Chicago. 
Our subject has been identified with the Re- 
publican party since its organization, merg- 
ing from the Whig and Free- Soil organiza- 
tion. He devotes considerable time to the 
dairv business. 



SIMON SCHAFER, farmer, P. O. Down- 
er's Grove, was born September 17, 1839, in 
Germany; is a son of David and Christina 
(Nusbaum) Schafer, who came from Germany 
in 1853. They first settled in Canada, where 
they remained two years, and then came to 
Du Page County; here they rented land for 
several years, until they had saved sufficient 
means to purchase eighty acres, where our 
subject now lives, and where the parents 
died, the father in 18S0, the mother in 1806. 
Our subject was the only son, and had but 
little opportunity for attending school, the 
greater part of his time being employed in 
farming with the ox-team and the primitive 
implements of agriculture. The father's vo- 
cation was that of a weaver, and the son was 
hired out at an early age to learn farming, 
after which he took charge of his father's 
farm. He now has 120 acres of well-im- 
proved land of his own. In 1866, Mr. Scha- 
fer married Sarah Peters, a sister of Daniel 
Peters, whose biography appears elsewhere 
in this book. This union has resulted in six 
children, viz., Frank, Bertha, Amelia, Min- 
nie, Edith and Willie. Mi'. Schafer is en- 
gaged in the dairy business; he votes the 
Republican ticket. 

ALOIS SCHWARTZ, farmer. P. O. Na- 
perville. Mr. Schwartz was born June 17, 
]828, in Alsace, now Germany; is a son of 
Michael and Mary Schwartz, natives of Ger- 
many and the parents of thirteen children, 
seven of whom are living, viz., Lawrence, 
Joseph, Alois, Ferdinand, Lewis, Antone and 
Michael; the parents emigrated to this coun- 
ty in July, 1846, and settled on the farm 
now owned by Michael Schwartz, near the 
center of Lisle Township; here the father 
died, September 10, 1865, and the mother in 
February. 1874; the parents were Catholics; 
the father was a fisherman in his native 
country. Alois experienced some of the 



LISLE TOWNSHIP. 



151 



hardships that were upon the early settlers. 
He never attended school a single day, and 
what education he possesses is the result of 
his ambitious efforts. In 1850. he went to 
California; there he mined successfully for 
about five years, after which he returned and 
bought land in Du Page County. By fru- 
gality and careful management, he has seciu'ed 
380 acres of land, which is finely improved, 
partly by his own hands. In 1866, he made 
a wise selection of a help-mate in the person 
of Miss Katie Gipe, which union gave him 
four children, viz., Edward. Amelia. Dan C. 
and Andrew. He is tiling his farm; has now 
about 800 rods of tile drainage on his fine 
farm. The family are members of the Catho- 
lic Church of Naperville. His political pro- 
clivities are Democratic. 

ALBERT SCHMITT, farmer. P. O. Na- 
perville, was born July 22, 1834, in Alsace, 
now Germany; is the son o.f Francis A. and 
Francisca (Schwartz) Schmitt. The parents 
came to Du Page County in 1843, settling 
where the subject of these notes now lives; 
the father died on February 6, 1861 ; the 
mother was born October 24, 1808, and is 
living with her son Albert, of whom we 
write; the parents had three boys — Theopo- 
las. Antona and Albert; they united early 
with the Catholic Church. Mr. S. attended 
school some during his younger days; he 
drove ox teams when ten years old, hauling 
oats to Chicago and selling at 20 cents per 
bushel; he was married, June 3. 1856, to 
Mary Schmitt (no connection), she a daugh- 
ter of Martin and Mary (Pfaff) Schmitt. By 
her Mr. S. had seven children — Frank, Otilia, 
Henry E., Willie N., Joseph T., Andrew A. 
and Sophia (deceased). Ho owns 270 acres 
of well-improved land, which was formerly 
timbered. He is now Road Commissioner; 
has been School Director. The family are 
members of the Catholic Church of Naper- 



ville. Votes the Democratic ticket. His 
wife was born July 16. 1840, in Alsace. 

NICHOLAS STENGER, farmer, P. O. 
Naperville, was born January 22, 1860, in 
Du Page County; is a son of Nicholas and 
Elizabeth (Snebly) Stenger. natives of Ger- 
many. The parents settled at Naperville 
very early, where the father died; the mother 
is still living; the parents had seven chil- 
dren, five of whom are living Mary. Amelia, 
Nicholas, Adolph, Elizabeth; they became 
members of the Evangelical Association very 
early. Our subject had good eduational 
advantages. He was married, November 25, 
1881, to Emma, a daughter of Fred Strubler, 
of Naperville. He settled on his present 
farm of ninety-four and a half acres in 1882. 
He is making some specialty of stock-raising. 
He and wife are members of the Evangelical 
Association. He votes the Republican ticket; 
is a strict temperance man. His father was 
an owner of the early brewery at Naperville. 

E. O. STANLEY, farmer, P. O. Downer's 
Grove, was born August 8, 1828. in Penn- 
sylvania; is a son of Dexter and Nancy (Cap- 
ron) Stanley. Mr. Stanley is a brother of L. 
W. Stanley and Mrs. Dryer, the mother of 
H. L. Bush, in whose sketches the parents 
are prominently noticed. E. O. attended 
school in a small building on his father's 
farm, and for awhile in the old building 
that stood where T. M. Woods now lives. Was 
married, in 1862, to Mary Allen, a daughter 
of Mr. Allen, of Ohio, who blessed him with 
two children, viz., Adah M. and Lee. He 
has 134 acres of well-improved land, the re- 
sult of his own labors. He is running a 
dairy, having seventeen cows. Been in some 
small offices. Votes the Republican ticket. 
He and wife are members of the Baptist 
Church of Downer's Grove. 

G. W. WEBSTER, farmer, P. O. Naper 
ville. This enterprising young man is the 



152 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



son of George W. and Caroline "Webster. 
The father is a son of Lyfretand Sarah Web- 
ster, and was born in 1811. The mother of 
our subject was born July 1, 1822. in Ash- 
land, N. H. ; is a daughter of Jacob and 
Clarissa (Webster) Shepherd. The Shep- 
herds are descendants of the Holdeness 
Colony, and the Websters of the Plymouth 
Colony. Mrs. Webster's parents emigrated 
to Lisle Township, this county, in 1849, and 
settled on the farm where the subject now 
lives. Here her father died in 1865, and her 
mother in 1860. She was one of two chil- 
dren, Caroline and Walter (a grocer of Chi 
cago). Her mother was a member of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church. She was mar- 
ried to Webster, the father of our subject, in 
1846, the result being two children — Clara 
E. and George W. Her husband died in 
November, 1848. She and her consort came 
to this county in Saptember, 1846, buying at 
that time 152 acres at $1.25 per acre. Here 
she has lived since. Her parents really never 
bought any land here, but made their home 
with her after her husband died. She and 
her son lived in Chicago for seven years, 
where he was engaged in the milk and gro 
eery business. George is now managing the 
farm, raising grain and stock. His mother 
lives with him. He is somewhat in the dairy 
business. Mrs. Webster tells a little circum- 
stance connected with the life of ancestors, 
Websters and Shepherds, which we deem 
worth a notice, as it illustrates some facts set 
forth in parts of this book. These relations 
were, two families o£ them, located on the 
banks of a river, in New Hampshire, some 
forty miles away from any other people. 
The river ran between the two families, and, 
as there was no means by which they could 
cross, the women were so eager to visit that 
they would go to the banks and holloa at each 
other, thus learning the condition and wel- 



fare of the family. They would bring their 
interviews to a climax by the one singing and 
the other dancing to the sweet music that 
rolled over the turbulent waters. 

S. J. WILLARD, farmer, P. O. Lisle, was 
born August 27. 1818, in South Brimfield, 
Mass. ; is a son of George R. and Hannah 
(Dunham) Willard, natives of Massachusetts 
and parents of eleven children, viz., George 
R., Ferdinand, Clarissa, Oriel, S. J., Whit- 
ney, Benjamin C. , Oriel L., Annis, Edwin 
and Maryette. In 1835, the parents settled 
on a claim of 300 acres, where the subject 
now resides. The father died in 1835, about 
six weeks after arriving in this county; the 
mother died in 1862. Our subject attended 
school as much as was convenient; worked on 
the farm and with his father at wheelwright 
ing. When they located in this county, Mr. 
Willard drove the ox teams and witnessed 
the scenes that make up the life of the pio- 
neer. He was married, in 1859, to Janet 
Decker, by whom he was blessed with live 
children — Judson, Lewis, Maurice, Alice, 
and one deceased when young. Our subject 
has 21S acres of well-improved land. He 
votes the Republican ticket. 

S. D. WEBSTER, farmer, P. O. Naper- 
ville, was born January 16, 1848, in Du Page 
County; is the son of M. R. and Caroline 
Webster, early settlers of this county, and 
the parents of eight children, viz., Henry, 
Sarah, Charlotte, Mary, Charles, Rockwood, 
William and S. D. The mother died in 
1850; the father survives, among his children. 
The father was married a second time to 
Arvilla Bessel, by whom he had two children, 
Laura and Julia. His second wife died in 
1870. Our subject attended school at Naper- 
ville, aside from the district schools. Was 
married, October 1, 1874, to Flora A., daugh- 
ter of J. D. and Lucinda Turner, one of six 
children — Joel, George, Jennie, Matilda, 



YORK TOWNSHIP. 



153 



Flora and Charles. He is farming 150 acres 
of well-improved land belonging to his father. 
His wife is a member of the Congregational 
Church. He votes the Republican ticket. 
His father is noted as one of the early Aboli- 
tionists. 

JOSEPH WORLEY, farmer, P. O. Naper- 
ville, was born February 21, 1832, in Alsace, 
Germany; is a son of Antona and Mary 
(Herstel) Worley, who came here in 1853, 
settling in Lisle Township, where they both 
died, having: been blessed with four children 



— Joseph, Sophia, Lizzie, and one deceased. 
Mr. Worley attended school some in his na- 
tive country. Came to this country in 1849, 
and engaged for eleven years in a brewery at 
Naperville. Was married, in 1855, to Lizzie 
Schmitt, the result being six children — Will- 
iam, Andrew, Mary, Frank, Henry and Lib- 
bie? He settled on his present farm of 180 
acres in 1S69, which is well improved, and 
the attainment of his own labors. The fam- 
ily are members of the Catholic Church. He 
votes the Republican ticket. 



YORK 

ATWATER, Utopia, 



GEORGE H. A'J WA.TUK, Utopia, was 
born in Broome County, N. Y. , February 19, 
1826; his father, Jesse Atwater, was born 
March 7, 1784, in the State of Connecticut, 
son of Jesse, a Revolutionary soldier. The 
mother of our subject was Lucretia Martin. 
The Atwaters came West in 1834, and settled 
in this county. Jesse died in 1866, and his 
wife in 1868. They were the parents of eight 
children — William, Olive, George H, Rachel, 
Ann, Betsey, Rebecca and Benjamin. William 
Olive and Rebecca are dead. Jesse Atwater 
was a good citizen and was much esteemed. 
His successor on the homestead, his son 
George H. , has constantly resided here since 
his father located the claim. July 14, 1849, 
he married Phebe Willig, a native of Penn- 
sylvania, born September 9, 1831, daughter 
of Henry and Mercy Ann (Abbott) Willig; 
he died May 8, 1882. Mr. Atwater has two 
children — Alfred and Almeda. Alfred mar- 
ried Ada Stevens, and has two children. 
Almeda married Jones M. Clapp, of Marengo, 
McHenry County. Mr. Atwater has 146 acres 
of fine land. 

GERRY BATES (deceased). Prominent 
among the early arrivals of Elmhiu'st of one 



TOWNSHIP. 

who contributed much toward its advance- 
ment and settlement, was Gerry Bates, who 
came here in 1842, and purchased the section 
of land upon which the town of Elmhurst 
now stands. He was born August 24, 1800, 
in Chesterfield, Mass., son of Benjamin Bates, 
whose ancestors were of English origin. Our 
subject removed with his father in 1808, to 
Geauga County, Ohio, but in 1842, removed 
to this locality as above stated, and soon after 
making his purchase, built Cottage Hill Hotel. 
A. few years after, he engaged in merchan- 
dising-, and was made Postmaster, the first 
one in the township, and held the office up 
to tbe time of his death — a period of about 
thirty years. His death occurred July 29, 
1878. He was twice married — first, to Ada- 
line Hovey, who bore him several children. 
His last wife yet survives him, and resides on 
the homestead; her maiden name was Georgia 
S. Smith, a native of South Waterboro, Me. 
She, with three children — Frederick H, Ada- 
line and Charles, resides at the "Willows," 
the name of the family residence. Fred H 
is now practicing medicine in Bensenville, in 
Addison Township, this county, and is get- 
ting into a fine practice; he received his lit- 



154 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



erary education at the University of Chicago, 
and graduated at Rush Medical College Feb- 
ruary 21, 1878. After the death of his father, 
he became Postmaster, and held the office un- 
til his resignation. In August, 1881, he was 
associated with Dr. J. M. Zahn. of Elgin, in 
the practice of medicine, which copartner- 
ship was dissolved in May, 1882, when he lo- 
cated at Bensenville. He is a member of the 
Masonic fraternity, Harlem Lodge, No. 540. 
GEORGE BARBER, farmer, P. O. Lom- 
bard, was born in Benson, Rutland Co., Vt., 
November 18, 1818, second son of Joel and 
Laura (Cleveland) Barber, he born in Rutland 
County, Vt., she in Hampton, Washington 
Co., N. Y. Joel Barber was a son of William 
Baber, one of the first settlers in Rutland 
County, Vt., who had to keep his family in 
the fort at Ticonderoga, N. Y., for shelter 
while he was making a settlement in Benson, 
Vt., and who had seven children — William, 
Robert, James, Joel. Sallie, Polly and Eu- 
nice. Joel Barber's wife, Laura Cleveland, 
was a daughter of Josiah Cleveland, who was 
thrice married, Mrs. Joel Barber being one 
of the children of the first marriage. The 
Clevelands were Methodists, the Barbers Bap- 
tists and Congregationalists. Joel Barber 
had eight children— William C, George, 
Gilbert, Carlyle, Margaret A., Lucy, Anna 
E. and Betsey, who died in infancy. Our 
subject left borne to push his own fortunes at 
the age of twenty-two, having but little edu- 
cational advantages. In the sjaring of 1844, 
he started West; arrived in Chicago June 15, 
that year, and came to this county, having 
then about $70. In the fall of 1843, he mar- 
ried Maria Root, a native of Rutland County, 
Vt., daughter of Martin and Abigail (Stearns) 
Root, he born March 14, 1785, died Febru- 
ary 18, 1865, she born January 23, 1788, 
died in York Township, this county. March 
2, 1873. Martin Root's wife, Abigail Stearns, 



was a daughter of a Revolutionary soldier, 
who -was with Washington at Valley Forge. 
The Root family came to this county in the 
fall of 1843. Martin Root had a family of 
eight children. Mr. Barber, when he first 
came to this county, rented land in Lisle 
Township; then bought forty-eight acres in 
Downer's Grove, where he remained several 
years, then sold out and moved to Lisle 
Township, and after remaining there about 
four years, came to his present place in 
1860, bought 140 acres of land, at $20 an 
acre, and has since remained here; he bought 
this farm from Horace Brooks, who settled 
it. Mr. and Mrs. Barber have had three 
children — Josiah C, Lucy M. and George 
F., who died March 3, 1866, aged seven- 
teen years. Mr. Barber has followed farm- 
ing since he located here, and has also 
been agent for Kirby's mowers and reap- 
ers; he has been Assessor and Supervis- 
or; was formerly a Whig, now a Republican. 
HENRY BUCHHOLZ, farmer, P. O. Elm- 
hurst, resides on Section 1; his residence 
is situated on the northeast corner of the 
township. He was born November 5, 1846, 
in the Kingdom of Hanover, and came to this 
country with his parents when but two years 
of age. His father, Henry, was born October, 
1810, and married Minnie Beckmann, daugh- 
ter of Fred Beckmann, and by her two chil- 
dren were born — Henry and Louisa. Louisa 
married Henry Kemman, of La Grange. The 
paternal grandfather of our subject was also 
named Henry; he never came to this country. 
The father of Henry came here in the spring 
of 1848, and purchased the farm upon which 
he remained until his death, in March, 1868; 
his wife yet survives him, and resides in 
Proviso; she married Henry Avers. October 
1, 1873, our subject married Caroline, born 
March 12, 1S49, in this township, and is the 
second daughter of Fred Fisher, one of the 



YORK TOWNSHIP. 



155 



early settlers of the county. Mr. Buchholz 
has two children — Albert Henry anrl Carl 
Fred; he has about 200 acres of land under 
excellent improvement. 

MEL YIN J. BALLOTJ. railroad conduc- 
tor. Lombard. The popular and well-known 
conductor of the Omaha Express was born in 
the Empire State, St. Lawrence County, Oc- 
tober 5, 1845, son of Philander and Abigail 
(Stearns) Ballou. The paternal grandsire 
of Melvin J. lived to be eighty-six years of 
age. James F. Stearns his mother's fa- 
ther, lived to be also four-score years. The 
father of M. J. was a farmer and yet resides 
in St. Lawrence County, N. Y. He raised 
nine children, six sons and three daughters. 
Melvin was brought up on the farm, and, 
while yet in his teens, he volunteered in 
Company Gr, Sixtieth New York Volunteer 
Infantry, and served until the close of the 
war. After the war, he returned home; soon 
after, however, he came West, to Du Page 
County, first, to Turner Junction, and. in 
1807, he began railroading and worked his 
way up. and in due time was placed in charge 
of a train as conductor, and, for thirteen 
years, has been serving in this capacity, his 
run being the Omaha Express on the Chicago 
& North-Western Railroad, running from 
Chicago to Clinton, Iowa; his efficiency as a 
railroad man and his known fidelity have se- 
cured him one of the best runs on the line. 
He resides at Lombard, having a little home 
of his own, a wife and two children — Eva F. 
and Ashley Melvin; his wife Fannie was born 
in Milton Township, daughter of M. W. 
Murray, one of the old residents of Du Page. 
Mr. Ballou is a Republican and a member of 
the Masonic order. He has three brothers in 
this State, all of whom are railroad men — 
Henry, Hector and Louis. Henry resides at 
Blue Island, and is passenger conductor; 
Hector at Danville; is conductor of freight 



train; Louis S. resides at Watseka, is pas- 
senger conductor. He has one brother — 
Charles, a farmer, who lives near Mears, 
Mich. 

SETH CHURCHILL, Lombard, was born 
in Vermont May 25, 1805, and is a son of 
Winslow and Mercy (Dodge) Churchill, na- 
tives of Vermont, Winslow Churchill having 
been born in Rutland, that State. The 
Churchill family came to this country from 
England in the Mayflower; the Dodge family 
came from Scotland. Winslow Churchill and 
family came to this county in June, 1834, 
having landed in Chicago on the 5th of that 
month, came, to Babcock Grove, now Pros- 
pect Park, whore some of the family still re- 
side, took a claim eight years before the land 
was surveyed, paying $1.25 p^r acre for 160 
acres. Winslow Churchill settled on the 
banks of the Du Page River, where he died, 
aged seventy-seven years, eight months and 
eight days; his wife died at the advanced 
age of eighty-eight years; they had the fol- 
lowing children: William, who came West 
about the year 1840, died in Wisconsin, aged 
eighty-one years; Malinda, who married Syl- 
vester Ketcham, died in Michigan; Christina, 
in this county, has been twice married, her 
first husband. Erastus Ketcham, died, leaving 
one son, Erastus ; her second husband, David 
Christian, also deceased, left two sons — 
Wesley and W T illiam C. Lorana, who came 
with her parents from New York, married 
John D. Ackerman, and had five sons — Seth, 
the subject of this sketch; Major, living in 
Jeddo, N. Y. ; Betsey, living in Cook County, 
wife of Samuel Mahoffy; Winslow, in Down- 
er's Grove, this county; Amanda, died when 
young; Isaac B., in Milton Township, this 
county, and Hiram, who went to California 
and has never since been heard of. The sub- 
ject of this sketch lived on his first purchase 
of land until March, 1854, when he came to 



156 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



Lombard, having previously, however, spent 
one year in Chicago. August 9, 1828, he 
was married to Roxana Ward, of Jordan, N. 
Y., by Rev. M. Fuller. Mrs. Churchill was 
a daughter of Elijah Ward, who had a large 
family; she died March 12, 1872, aged sixty- 
four years one month and twenty-one days, 
leaving five children —Mary J., born January 
8, 1830; Horace, December 9, 1831; Myron, 
April 23, 1834, Emily K, August 17, 1838, 
and William H., July 17, 1840 Horace 
started for California via the overland route; 
was at Fort Laramie May 9, 1852, and has 
never since been heard from. Myron died 
December 25, 1876; he had two sons, War- 
ren and Orvilie. Emily resides at Prospect 
Park, wife of Oscar Johnson. William H. 
resides in Iowa. December 10, 1874, Mr. 
Churchill married Eliza Young, born August 
23, 1849, in Oberholm, Germany, daughter 
of Adam and Elizabeth Young, who came 
here about 1852 ; the latter died in August, 
1852. By this union they have one child 
— Jessie. Mr. Churchill has a fine farm 
of 420 acres of land; he has been a church 
member for forty years; his father was 
formerly a Congregationalist; later, a mem- 
ber of the M. E. Church, to which he be- 
longed at his death. 

EDWARD ELDRIDGE, farmer, P. O. 
Utopia. This gentleman came to Du Page 
County May 29, 1835, making his first set- 
tlement in York Township, where he has 
since lived. He was born November 16, 
1803, in Albany County, N. Y. He was the 
seventh child and fifth son of a family of 
eleven children. His father was Benedict 
Eldridge, a native of Cape Cod. Benedict 
Eldridge married Rhoda Chevalier, and her 
children, who grew up, were Richard, Zenas, 
Hannah, Dorcas, George, Edward, Mary, 
Lydia and Louis. In May, 1835, Edward 
came West to Du Page County, and the 



same year went north to Section 14, where he 
made a claim, which he afterward purchased, 
located thereon, and has since been a resident 
of the same. July 10, 1836, he married Ra- 
chel B. Atwater, who was born January 8, 
1815, in Broome County, N. Y., daughter of 
Jesse Atwater, one of the early settlers of this 
township. Mr. Eldridge has had five chil- 
dren born, four living — Rhoda, wife of Frank 
Filer, she died June 1, 1882; Lazetta, mar- 
ried Charles B. Townsend; Benedict J.; Mar- 
tha, wife of Charles G. Howell ; Rebecca, 
wife of Walter S. Price. Mr. Eldridge is 
now nearly fourscore years of age; has been 
a resident of the township forty-seven years, 
and is yet in good health. Not a member of 
any church; in politics, Democratic. 

GEORGE FULLER, farmer, P. O. Uto 
pia, was born March 6, 1815, in the town of 
Lisle, Broome Co., N. Y., son of Jacob W. 
Fuller, who came to this county in 1836, and 
died at Fullersburg June 5, 1867; he was a 
blacksmith. Jacob W. married Candace Sul- 
livan, who bore him thirteen children, all of 
whom grew up save one. George remained 
on the farm until twenty-three years of age; 
he learned the trade of his father, which he 
followed for several years, but finally gave 
his entire attention to farming. In 1850, he 
located where he now lives. He was the first 
Assessor of York Township, and has subse- 
quently refilled the same position. He has 
served as Township Treasurer for fourteen 
years. He was married, December 31, 1841, 
to Cynthia M. Talmadge, a native of New 
York, daughter of John Talmadge; she died 
September 15, 1851. July 12, 1853. he mar- 
ried Polly Davis, daughter of Nelson Davis; 
she bore him three children — Lorin, Sarah 
and Mary, all deceased; she died in 1863, 
February 12. December 31, 1864, he mar- 
ried his present wife, Lydia A., who was 
born in this township; her parents were 



YORK TOWNSHIP. 



157 



Louis and Harriet (Clark) Eldridge. Four 
children were born — Lorin, Sarah, Mary J. 
and Willie N., all deceased. Mr. Fuller has 
about 300 acres of land; is in very easy and 
comfortable circumstances, and is spending 
his declining years in happiness and content- 
ment. 

FRED J. T. FISCHER, physician, Elm- 
hurst, was born in Du Page County on 
the homestead farm, in Addison Township, 
July 30, 1842, and was the second son of 
Henry D. and Maria Franzen (Fischer). 
Fred J. T. was brought up on the farm, 
where he remained until June, 1861, when 
ho enlisted as private in Company B, Thirty- 
third Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 
and served three years and three months; 
during that time, he participated in every 
battle in which his company was engaged, 
some of the most prominent being Cache 
River, Ark, Bolivar Bend, Miss., Champion 
Hills, Miss., seige of Vicksburg, Jackson, 
Miss., and Fort Esperanza, Texas. Soon 
after his return home from service, he was 
elected County Clerk, and served three years, 
when he resigned in order to complete his 
education. He entered Oberlin College, and 
graduated in 1874, receiving the highest 
honors of his class, consisting of thirty mem- 
bers, and being elected Greek orator of the 
class; he received the degrees of A. B., A. M., 
as well as M. D. He also took a three years' 
course at the famous Heidelberg University, 
Germany, and, upon his return, engaged in 
practice at Cincinnati, Ohio, until the spring 
of 1879, when, on account of the death of his 
father-in-law, Diedrich Struckmann, he re- 
turned to Elmhurst. Since that time, he has 
been engaged in the practice of his profes- 
sion here. September 27, 1874, he married 
Martha S., daughter of Diedrich Struckmann 
and Caroline Korthauer. Mr. Struckmann came 
to this country in 1844; he was a carpenter 



and builder by trade; he was a successful 
business man and accumulated a handsome 
competence for his family; he died in 1879. 
(See sketch of Mr. Struckmann and portrait 
appears in this work.) The Doctor has one 
son — Walter D. He is a stanch Republi- 
can and a member of the Evangelical 
Church. 

DAVID FULLER, farmer, P. O. Fullers- 
burg, born March 28, 1825, in the town of 
Lisle, Broome Co., N. Y., son of Jacob W. 
Fuller, one of the pioneers of York Town- 
ship. David was a lad of eleven years when 
his father came to" this township, and has 
been a resident of the same up to the present 
time. He was first married when twenty-six 
years of age, April 7, to Catharine, daughter 
of Philip Bohlander, one of the early settlers 
of Du Page County; she died March 28, 
1870. Of this marriage the issue was three 
children. Angeline, now deceased, was the 
wife of George Coffin; Charles P. B. and 
Lydia L. are living. June 1, 1871, he mar- 
ried his present wife — Charlotte, a native of 
England, daughter of Thomas Evernden and 
Mary Ford, who came to the United States 
in 1855, and to this State ten years later. 
Nine children were born to Mr. Evernden, 
two sons and seven daughters — William, 
Thomas, Mary, Jennie, Charlotte, Esther, 
Kate, Annie and Birdie. Esther and Kittie 
deceased. Mr. Evernden died September 2, 
1870; his wife Mary resides with her son 
Thomas, in Fulton County, 111. William 
resides in this county, druggist at Hinsdale. 
By the last marriage, Mr. Fuller has one 
daughter — Elsie Bernice, born November 25, 
1872. He resides on the farm his father set- 
tled (Section 27), which has never been out 
of the family name; he has 208J acres and 
other interests in the county; he has traded 
successfully in real estate, and is of a me- 
chanical turn of mind. 



158 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



FRED GRAUE. miller, Fullersburg, was 
born January 25, 1819, in Landesbergen, in 
the Kingdom of Hanover, the third son of 
Frederick Graue and Lucie (Thiirmau), to 
whom were born eight sons and one daugh- 
ter. The Graue family emigrated to the 
United States in 1833, arriving first in Albany 
County, N. Y. In May, the following year, 
came to Chicago. They remained at Chicago 
a short time, and, he the same summer, lo- 
cated in Addison Township, this county, at 
a grove which has since borne their name. 
Here Frederick, the father, died in 1837, his 
wife surviving him until 1866. Fred, the 
subject of these lines, remained with his fa- 
ther until of age, when he located on a piece 
of land near the homestead, upon which he 
lived until 1850; he then moved to the south- 
east corner of the township, on Section 36, 
where he, in company with William Asche, 
purchased a mill site and erected a saw-mill. 
After three years' association together in 
business, Mr. Graue bought the entire inter- 
est, and has since run it. In the summer of 
1852, he built the brick mill, main building 
45x28, three stories high and basement, put in 
two run of buhrs, and has since run the same, 
mostly on custom grinding. Mr. Graue bas 
been twice married — first, to Louise Fischer, 
born in Hanover, daughter of Frederick 
Fischer; seven children were born of this 
marriage, five of whom lived to maturity — 
Caroline, wife of Fred Grage, of Addison 
Township; Louis and Fred E. are on farms 
in York Township; Emma resides in Port- 
land, Ore., wife of Harmon H. Kiessling; 
William, the youngest, remains yet at home. 
His second marriage was to Mrs. Henrietta 
Kiessling, whose maiden name was Korthaur. 
He has about 200 acres of land which he car- 
ries on, but gives his attention personally to 
his milling. He is a member of the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Church. 



EDWARD D. GRAUE, farmer, P. O. 
Elmhurst, is a son of Henry Graue, one of 
the early settlers of tne township, and resides 
on the farm owned and settled by his father. 
Henry Graue was born April 23, 1826, in the 
same locality in the Kingdom of Hanover as 
were his brothers Fred, August and Lewis. 
Henry came here to York Township with his 
brothers, and made his purchase and engaged 
in farming, remaining here until his death, 
July 19, 1868. He was a good citizen, and 
a worthy member of the community. His 
wife was Louisa Krage, born near Hanover, 
in February, 1829, daughter of Fred Krage 
and Mary Stuenkel, which family came to 
Du Page in 1837. Two children are living, 
of a family of three, born to Henry Graue and 
wife — Edward D., our subject, and Louisa, 
who resides in this township, wife of Edward 
Rotermund. Edward D. , who has taken his 
father's place and represents him on the 
home farm, was born April 13, 1818, and has 
now charge of the farm and resides with his 
mother. The farm, at his father's death, 
consisted of 360 acres. Mrs. Rotermund's 
portion taken out leaves 240 acres. 

HENRY D. GRAY, hardware, Lombard. 
This genial and wide-awake business man 
was born November 19, 1849, and is a de- 
scendant of the Graue family (pronounced 
Gray), who were among the earliest settlers. 
Henry D. was a son of Deidrick Graue and 
Louisa Flag. Deidrick Graue was the pio- 
neer of the family ; he came and settled in 
the south part of Addison as early as 1S33; 
he purchased considerable amount of land, 
which he afterward divided out among his 
brothers, who settled near him; he died in 
1879, in January; his wife yet survives him 
and resides on the homestead. The children 
born them were Henry D., August, Louisa, 
Regina and Albert, all of whom yet reside on 
the farm except H. D. and Louisa, who re- 



YORK TOWX.SIIIP. 



159 



side in this town. Louisa married Duncan 
Malcomb, a partner of Henry D., who was 
raised on the farm where he was born until 
he came to Lombard, in 1877, and engaged 
in the hardware and agricultural implement 
business. Prior to this, he was for some 
time engaged as auctioneer, which he has 
since followed, in connection with his other 
business. In 1879, he associated with him 
in business his brother-in-law, Mr. Malcomb. 
Since, the firm has been Gray & Malcomb. 
In politics. Republican; is unmarried, and a 
member of the A., F. & A. M. , Wheaton 
Lodge. Mr. Gray is the ' ' outside man " of 
the fiiTu, attends to the canvassing and set- 
ting up the machinery. Malcomb attends to 
the store and tin-shop. 

AUGUST GRAUE, store and farming, 
Elmhurst, was the youngest child born to 
Frederick Graue; he was born January 12, 
1829, in the Kingdom of Hanover, and came 
with his parents to this State, arriving at the 
grove which bears the family name, June 9, 
1834. August was but a child when he came 
here, and was brought up to farm labor, and 
has since that time given his time to agricultur- 
al pursuits. July 24, 1851, he married Caro- 
line Krage, daughter of Fred Krage, a native 
of Hanover; she died March 21, 1862, having 
borne four children — Louisa, Henrietta, 
Mary and August. His last wife was Mrs. 
Louisa Stelling, and by her he has Caroline, 
Edward, Willie and Julius. After Mr. Graue 
married, he located on part of the homestead, 
and continued on the same a constant resident 
and been engaged in farming. He has 271 
acres in this county, and 100 in Will County, 
this State. October, 1881, he left the farm 
and located in Elmhurst and engaged in mer- 
chandising, carrying on a general store- -dry 
goods, boots and shoes, groceries, notions, etc. 

J. B HULL, stock-dealer, Lombard. 
Among the old-time residents of Lombard is 



Joseph B. Hull, who descended from old 
English stock; his progenitors came to Con- 
necticut and there settled prior to the Revo- 
lution. Joseph B. was born March 24, 1814, 
in Kinderhook. Columbia Co., N. Y., and 
removed with his parents to Cortland Coun- 
ty when six months old. His father, George 
Hull, was born in Dutchess County, N. Y. , in 
June, 17S6, son of Tiddman and Annie Hull. 
George Hull manned Sarah, daughter of Jo- 
seph and Eunice Barnard. The family on 
both sides are remarkable for their longevity. 
Subject s father is yet living, in his ninety- 
sixth year; his wife died aged seventy-live; 
her mother, Eunice, died aged eighty-four. 
Tiddman lived to nearly a centenarian; his 
wife Annie died aged ninety-four. Joseph 
Barnard, from whom our subject was named, 
was a sea Captain, and followed the seas and 
was lost while on one of his voyages. To Tidd- 
man Hull and wife Annie were born seven 
children; those who lived to be grown were 
Penelope, Avis. Ruth. Annie, Amy, Solomon 
and George; now living, are George, the 
father of J. B., who resides in Madison 
County, Y. Y.; Avis resides in Brooklyn. 
To Joseph Barnard were born two children 
— Eliza, and Annie, the mother of J. B. 
Eliza married a man by the name of Hunt, 
and settled in Wisconsin. Our subject was 
raised a Quaker. To Geo. Hull and wife were 
born ten children; except the one who died 
in infancy, nine of them lived to many years 
past their maturity ere there was a death in 
the family; the first death of this number 
was at the age of forty-nine. The eldest 
was Edward; then, in order, came Judith, 
Joseph B., Lydia, Annie, Tiddman, Caroline 
and George M. ; those deceased are Edward 
and Lydia. Eliza and Tiddman never 
came West. Caroline resides at Harvard. 
McHenry County, wife of Henry Benjamin. 
Annie and Judith reside at Oak Park; the 



160 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



former married L. Morey, the latter Horace 
Coleman. George M. resides at Fort Dodge, 
Iowa, and Joseph B., who resides here in 
Lombard. His father was a mill man, and, 
for several years, ran a large paper mill in 
Kinderhook; afterward, was engaged in farm- 
ing, and run a saw-mill. Joseph was raised 
to farming and in the mill business; lived 
with his father until about twenty-five years 
of age; he afterward engaged with his brother 
Edward in the mill business. He came to 
this State in 1845, arriving in Chicago in 
April, and came out to Bloomingdale Town- 
ship, this county, and purchased of the Gov- 
ernment and laid claim to 160 acres, 120 of 
which he got at Government price, the other 
eighty a neighbor entered away from him, 
which he afterward obtained by paying him 
$100 extra; when he paid for his land, he 
had $75 left; he purchased two yoke of cattle 
for $65, and a horse for $13; this wiped out 
all his money. The first money he got he 
obtained by cutting by hand twenty-five tons 
of hay, which he sold to E. O. Hills at $1.25 
per ton; he hauled the same on a sled and 
his wife stacked it. About two years after, 
he sold his improvements and land to W. R. 
Patrick, for $25 per acre. He then came to 
the northwest part of York Township, and 
purchased over 300 acres, costing $2.50 per 
acre. When he first settled, he engaged in 
butchering, and, in two seasons, he killed 
188 head of cattle, and other stock in pro- 
portion. About the year 1848, he went to 
Chicago, and engaged in business; carried 
on a store and manufactured shingles. About 
two years later, he came to Lombard and 
built a storehouse and engaged in merchan- 
dising; subsequently, had interests in a 
store at Cottage Hill and at Danby. About 
the year 1875, he sold out his land, reserving 
twenty acres and engaged in stock trading, 
which business he has since followed. He has 



done much toward building up the town; 
when he came there was about three buildings 
there; there are now nine buildings here 
which he built. He has always been identi- 
fied with the Republican party since its or- 
ganization In September, 1861, he enlisted 
in the army, and was over one year in the 
commissary department, serving as non-com- 
missioned officer; ou account of ill-health, 
he was released and returned home. He was 
married, in April, 1841, to Fannie E. Pat- 
rick, born in Cortland County, N. Y. , in 
1817, daughter of Nathaniel and Penelope 
Patrick. Four children have been born to 
Mr. Hull; but two living — Alma and Alice 
(twins); Alma resides in Huron, Dakota, 
wife of C. C. Hills; Alice resides in Lom- 
bard, at the home of her parents, wife of 
Henry Ferguson. Emily and Lydia are de- 
ceased. Emily E. died, aged thirteen; Lydia 
married Franklin Claflin, and moved to Hop- 
kinton, Mass. ; she had two children, both 
of whom died of diphtheria, and now lie by 
the side of their mother, who died in 1877. 
Mr. Hull has been a member of the Congre- 
gational Church since its origin in this 
place; himself and wife and two daughters 
of the number (fourteen) who formed the so- 
ciety at its organization. Though now nearly 
his threescore years and ten, yet he is active 
as a man of forty, and is actively engaged in 
stock trading, his operations extending into 
Iowa and other places, where he gathers up 
beef and stock cattle for the Chicago market. 
GEORGE F. HEIDEMANN, physician, 
Elmhurst, was born February 10, 1839, in 
Hanover, Germany, the seventh son of Chris- 
tian Hiedemann, who served in the famous 
battle of Waterloo. His wife was Mary 
Heuer. Our subject was left an orphan at a 
very early age, and came to this State when a 
lad of fifteen. At the age of seventeen, he 
engaged in a drug store, after which he at- 



YOHK TOWNSHIP. 



163 



tended the University at Ann Arbor, where 
he took a course of lectures and completed 
his course at Rush Medical College, being at 
one time private pupil of Dr. Brainard. 
March 31, 1S63, he was appointed Second 
Assistant Surgeon of the Fifty-eighth Illi- 
nois Volunteer Infantry. May 7, same year, 
was commissioned as First Assistant Surgeon 
by Gov. Yates, and was assigned to Spring- 
field in charge of the post there. In the 
summer of 1863, he was sent to Cairo, where 
he remained until he joined Gen. Sherman's 
forces: afterward was with Gen. Banks on 
the Red River Expedition; subsequently, 
was with Gen. A. J. Smith, at Memphis; 
then with Rosecrans, who was operating in 
Missouri, winding up his service with Gen. 
Thomas at Nashville. He was discharged in 
February, 1865. After his discharge from 
service, he came to Elmhurst and engaged in 
the practice of his profession, and has since 
remained. He was married, March 26. 1865, 
to Hannah C. Schween, daughter of William 
Schween; her mother's maiden name was 
Sophia Boeska. The Doctor served two 
years as Coroner under Hayes' administration, 
and has been School Director for nine years 
at the place; has six children — Alvenia M. , 
William G., George H, Lydia, Ellen and 
Edie. Member of the Evangelical Church 
and a Republican. He has since his coming 
to Elmhurst been in active practice, which 
has been a successful one, having now been 
here about eighteen years. 

L. A. HAGANS, Elmhurst, has been iden- 
tified with the interests of Elmhurst since 
1857. at which time he removed here, locat- 
ing on the place he now owns, though pur- 
chased by him some time previous to his ar- 
rival. He was born January 31, 1825, in 
Preston County, now West Virginia. There 
were nine children of his father's family, five 
sons and four daughters, L. A. being the 



third son and fourth child in order of birth. 
His father was Harrison Hagans, who was 
born in 1796, in Massachusetts, son of George 
Hagans, who served in the war of the Revo- 
lution and came of Irish stock. The mother 
of our subject was Jane, whose father was 
Daniel McCollum, of Scotch origin. The 
subject of these lines received the advan- 
tages of a common school, and, entering 
Washington College, Pennsylvania, remained 
there until his graduation, after which he 
began merchandising at Brandonville. Va. . 
remaining about one year, and then to King- 
wood, the county seat, where he continued 
about eight years. In the fail of 1857, he 
came to Illinois, locating here. In August, 
1860, he returned to Virginia, and engaged 
in merchandising once more. The war 
breaking out, he went to W T heeling, where he 
was appointed Secretary of the commonwealth 
under Gov. Pierrepoint. After the formation 
of the new State of West Virginia, he re- 
moved to Alexandria, remaining there until 
1865, when he returned to this State to settle 
his father-in-law's estate, after which he re- 
turned to Virginia once more and purchased 
an interest in the Wheeling Daily Intelli- 
gencer, and was associated in the manage- 
ment of that journal until the fall of 1873, 
when he sold out his interest and returned to 
Elmhurst. His place is called "Hawthorn.'' 
which he has improved from the wild prairie 
to its present condition. Since his last re- 
turn to this State, he has been associated 
with the firm of Rand, McNally & Co., Chi- 
cago. April 19, 1848, he married Lovela. 
born in Pennsylvania, daughter of Elisha 
and Anne M. (Brown) Hagans; he has one 
child living — Wilbur E. Myra Bella is dead ; 
she was born May 9. 1857, and died June 
10, 1868. Mr. Hagans is retired from active 
business, and employs his spare time in beau- 
tifying and improving his home. 



104 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



WILLIAM HAMMERSCHMIDT, tile 
manufacturer, Lombard. Among the recent 
inventions of the day, there are none that 
are productive of better results and pay a 
better return as an investment to the farmers 
than the judicious distribution of drain-tile 
on low and wet soils, which fact is now gen- 
erally understood. As an industry, the manu- 
facture of drain-tile is becoming one of im- 
portance, and, recognizing this fact, Mr. 
Hammerschmidt has, within the past few 
years, turned his attention to the manufact- 
ure of tiling. He came to this township in 
May, 1878, and established the Lombard 
Tile Factory, and has since been giving his 
whole time and attention to the enterprise, 
giving employment to a large force of men. 
He is a native of Da Page County, born in 
Naperville October 10, 1853, eldest son of 
Adolph Hammerschmidt, a native of Prussia, 
who came to this country in 1848. "William 
remained at home until twenty- four years of 
age, and came to York Township in the spring 
of 1878, and has since been identified with that 
township. His factory is situated one mile 
south of Lombard; his residence is adjacent to 
the factory. On March 30, 1882, he married 
Miss Elizabeth Bundorf, a native of Hanover. 

A. E. HILLS, merchant, Lombard. Fore- 
most among the energetic and stirring busi- 
ness men of Lombard is A. E. Hills, who was 
born September 15, 1840, in the town of 
Bloomingdale, eldest son of H. S. and Lorena 
(Maynard) Hills. At the age of fourteen, he 
set out for himself, and for several years was 
engaged as a clerk In January, 1871, he 
came to Lombard and opened a grocery, flour 
and feed store, and was Postmaster. About 
two years later, he moved to the Marquardt 
corner, and continued there under several 
firm changes until 1878, when he sold out to 
his partner, Louis Marquardt. In 1879, he 
associated with W. J. Loy in the auction 



business as Hills & Loy. May, 1881, he 
purchased Loy's interest and built tho store 
building he now occupies, which he stocked 
with general merchandise. May 3, 1S82, he 
associated with his brother, D. O, and since 
the firm is known as A. E. & D. O. Hills. 
He also does an auctioneering business and 
attends to sales all over the country. He is 
the present Postmaster and Police Justice of 
the town, and a member of the A. , F. & A. 
M., Turner Lodge, No. 872. May 16, 1870, 
he married Ellen M. Patrick, born in Bloom- 
ingdale Township, daughter of W. R. Pat- 
rick and Mary L. Knowles. He has five 
daughters — Carrie L., Florence E., Donna 
J., Helen M. and Alena. 

HERMAN H. KORTHAUER, hardware 
and agricultural implement, Bensenville, 
eldest son of Esquire Henry Korthauer, was 
born in this township May 28, 1852, on the 
homestead farm. He received a good com- 
mon-school education, which was completed 
by a thorough course in the business depart- 
ment in Wheaton College, where he grad- 
uated in 1867. He then returned home and 
engaged in farming pursuits, continuing here 
until the fall of 1881, when he located in 
Bensenville and engaged in the hardware 
business, buying out Henry A. Coggswell, 
who was well established in the trade. Mr. 
Korthauer is well known in the community, 
and, having good business qualifications, will 
merit the patronage of his many friends. He 
makes a specialty of the Grand Detour plows 
and Woods' machines, as well as a line of the 
best farming machinery and implements in 
i use. May 25, 1877, he married E mm a, 
■ daughter of Fred Heuer, a well-known and 
, prominent farmer in the township; has had 
two children, one living, Mary, Carrie died 
March 4, 1880. 

B. M. LEWIS, farmer, P. O. Lombard, is 
a native of Berks County, Penn. ; was born 



YORK TOWNSHIP. 



165 



April 26, 1811, the youngest son of Morgan 
Lewis, born in same county in 1771, and died 
in 1843; he married Rachel Hudson, who was 
born in Lancaster County, Penn., in 1768, 
and died in 1849. The paternal grandfather 
of our subject was Evan Lewis, who married 
Rach«l Williams; she bore him three sons — 
Morgan, Daniel and Amos; the former was a 
teacher; the latter were farmers by occupa- 
tion. The great-grandfather of B. M. was 
Morgan Lewis, a native of Wales, and came 
to Pennsylvania soon after William Penn's 
arrival. To Morgan Lewis and wife, Rachel, 
were born six children — two sons and four 
daughters, viz., Drusilla. Rebecca, Maria, 
Amos, Jane, and Benjamin M., the youngest 
of the family. He was raised upon the farm 
of his father until the year 1828, when he 
went to work on the public works, on the Mine 
Hill & Schuylkill Railroad, where he contin- 
ued sixteen years and worked from one po- 
sition to another, until he was promoted to 
Superintendent, which position he held un- 
til he resigned on account of impaired 
health from typhoid fever, which incapac- 
itated him for about one year. In June, 
1852, he came West, and located first in 
the south part of Addison Township, pur- 
chasing 240 acres where Henry Geills now 
lives. In 1858, he removed to Lombard and 
engaged in merchandising until 1861, when 
he located on the farm he now owns, which 
place was settled by Walter Filler. Since 
his advent to this place, he has been engaged 
in farming pursuits. He has been a success- 
ful business man. He has 263 acres here in 
York Township, 160 in Bureau County, and 
1,015 in Kankakee and Will Counties. He 
was married, in 1833, to Sarah Robinson, 
born in Berks County, Penn., in 1814, daugh- 
ter of Robert Robinson and Martha Philips. 
They have the following children: George 
M. , Jane L., Ben F., Rebecca, Amelia, John 



D. , Thomas J. , Morgan J. and Carrie N., all 
living. Charles M. died in 1881; was mar- 
ried, and had two children. George resides 
in Bureau County, a farmer. Jane L. lives 
in Wisconsin, near Lake Mills, wife of Luciol 
Griswill. Ben F. lives in Chicago; runs a 
flour and feed store. Rebecca lives with her 
parents. Amelia married John Loy and re- 
sides in Will County; also John D. Thomas 
J. works the home farm. Morgan J. resides 
in this township, farming. Carrie is a 
teacher; graduated in 1878 at the Northwest- 
ern College. Mr. Lewis has for several years 
been Road Commissioner. In politics, has 
been Democratic, yet not partisan. Was 
raised an Episcopalian, and, prior to his leav- 
ing Pennsylvania, became affiliated with the 
Masonic order. 

JACOB LOY, retired farmer, Lombard, 
was born April 14, 1S04, in Perry County, 
Penn., son of Nicholas and Margaret (Miller) 
Loy. Jacob, our subject, was raised to farm- 
ing, and lived with his parents until he was 
nineteen years of age, when he apprenticed 
himself to the tanner's trade, working at it 
four years. He then began the career of a 
drover, and afterward followed butchering 
while the canal was being built. He was 
subsequently made Superintendent, and 
placed in charge of several miles of con- 
struction work. After the canal was com- 
pleted, he engaged in boating, and ran the 
first boat, Juniata, Newport; was also engaged 
in the mercantile business, after which he 
engaged in the manufacture of iron, and pur- 
chased a foundry, but the venture was not 
lucrative, so he turned his attention to the 
lumber business, purchasing a saw and grist 
mill, but finally sold out and removed with 
his family to this county March 31, 1858, 
locating on the northwest quarter of the 
northwest section in the township, and has 
since been a resident here, and engaged, in 



166 



BIOGRAPHICAL 



the meantime, in farming. In February, 
1830, he married Catharine Zinn, a na- 
tive of Lebanon County, Penn. , daughter 
of Joseph Zinn and Elizabeth Snavely. 
He has had ten children born him, seven 
of whom are living — William J., George, 
John, Rebecca, Caroline, Amanda and Mary. 
Mr. Loy is now retired from active life. 
His farm is carried on by his sons, George 
and John. Is a member of the Lutheran 
Church. 

W. J. LOY, farmer, P O. Lombard. One 
of the worthy officials of York Township is 
Esquire Loy, who has been meting out legal 
justice to the people of this locality for sev- 
eral years; is now serving his fourth term. 
He came to York Township in September, 
1857, from Perry County, Penn., where he 
was born September 11, 1831, and is the only 
son of Jacob and Catharine (Zinn) Loy, well- 
known residents of the township. William 
J. has been reared to farming pursuits. He 
worked with his father, remaining under the 
parental roof until of age, and afterward, as 
he continued in his father's employ some 
time after arriving at his majority. Decem- 
ber 25, 1859, he married Sophronia Hatfield, 
a native of Wayne County, Ohio, daughter of 
Adam and Isabella (Truesdell) Hatfield, who 
came to the townshijs in 1851. Her father 
died July 3, 1865; mother, in 1859; seven 
children were born them ; five grew up — 
Jennie, now of Chicago; William, in Cali- 
fornia: Luellen, in Missouri; Lucinda, in 
Wayne County, Ohio, wife of John Reeder. 
After the marriage of Esquire Loy, he located 
on the farm he now owns, and has been closely 
allied with the township interests. He is 
Township Treasurer, and held that office for 
eight consecutive years. He has three chil- 
dren — Edward E. , Vesta L. and Hazel V. Is 
a member of the Masonic fraternity of long 
standing, having been entered, passed. 



raised, inducted, etc. , etc. , before coming to 
the West. Is a member of the Chapter at 
Wheaton. 

J. H. LATHROP, capitalist, Elmhurst, 
was born July 5, 1800, in Lebanon, N. H., 
and was the youngest of a family of ten chil- 
dren. His father, Samuel Lathrop, was the 
youngest of a family of twenty children, and, 
when but a mere boy, served in the Revolu- 
tionary war, and was wounded at the battle 
of Bunker Hill. He married Lois Hunting- 
ton, daughter of Theophilus Huntington, of 
Connecticut. Samuel died about the year 

1819. Our subj ect came West to Erie County, 
N. Y., where he remained until some years 
past his majority. His educational advan- 
tages were limited, but in early manhood he 
turned his attention to active business pur- 
suits, first embarking in the lumber trade; 
afterward, was appointed Collector at Buffalo. 
Subsequently, he removed to Virginia, 
where he married, in 1843, Miss Mariana, 
born in Alexandria, Va., daughter of Daniel 
and Mary (Barbour) Bryan. While in Vir- 
ginia, he engaged in the banking business, 
and operated extensively in coal mines, which 
at that time was the largest and most impor- 
tant in the United States. During President 
Taylor's administration, he was appointed 
Navy Agent at Washington, D. C. In 1865, 
he came to Illinois and settled in Elmhurst. 
where he has since resided, having an elegant 
home, surrounded with all modern comforts 
and conveniences. He has three children — 
Bryan, Barbour and Florence W. 

WILLIAM H. LITCHFIELD, Justice of 
the Peace, Elmhurst, was born November 2, 
1832, eldest son born to Cyreneus and Nancy 
(Plummer) Litchfield. Cyreneus was a son 
of Joel, and, early in life, was apprenticed 
to learn the clothier's vocation. In the year 

1820, be removed to Erie County, N. Y., and 
engaged in farming. In 1846, he came to 



YORK TOWNSHIP. 



167 



Dn Page County and located on Section 13, 
in this township, where he purchased land 
and improved the same. In 1865, he located 
at Elmhurst. In 1851, he was appointed 
Justice of the Peace, to fill an unexpired 
term, and was four times re-elected, serving 
eighteen yea"rs in all. His death occurred 
September 28. 1S76. He was first married 
to Nancy Gardiner, and by her had one child, 
Harris G., now on Governor's Island, an 
officer in the regular army, and attached to 
Gen. Hancock's staff. His last wife was 
Nancy Plummer, born in 1813. in New 
Hampshire, daughter of Caleb and Polly 
(Webster) Plummer. Mrs. Litchfield had 
three brothers and four sisters, nine in all — 
her sister who married David Talmadge. 
They came to the county and settled in this 
township in 1836. She has two brothers, 
Benjamin and Chester, who are residents of 
the county. By last marriage to Miss Plum- 
mer, two children, William H. and C. W., 
were born, both living with mother in Elm- 
hurst. William H was elected Justice of 
the Peace in 1877, and has since been hon- 
ored with re-election. He is a member of 
the Episcopal Church. 

D. MEYER, retired farmer, Lombard. 
The present prestige of Da Page County is 
largely due to the advent of the German peo- 
ple, who came to this country, and, in many 
instances, penniless upon their arrival, yet 
their resolutions were only surpassed by their 
industry and economy, which, together com- 
bined, have made them to day our most con- 
spicuous and well-to-do farmers, and added 
thereby very materially to the wealth and 
prosperity of the county. Of this class Mr. 
Meyers is one. He left his native home, 
Stulsnau, in province of Hanover (where he 
was born December 5. 1818). in the summer 
of 1840, son of Frederick and Sophia (Ess- 
mann) Meyer, who died in Germany. He 



left Bremen in the summer of 1840. and for 
the first two years lived near Cincinnati. In 
the spring of 1844, he came to Leyden, Cook 
County, where he soon purchased land, which 
he sold in 1849, and came to this county and 
purchased 210 acres where his son lives, and 
remained on the same until 1878, when he 
removed to his present location. He was 
married, while in Cook County, to Dorotha 
Dierking, born in Hanover in 1830, daughter 
of Christian Dierking. Mr. Meyer has ten 
children — Louis, Louisa. Caroline. Emma, 
Fred. William, Rosa. Henry. Martha and 
Frank. Louis resides on the homestead; 
Louisa is the wife of August Rotermund; 
Emma (dead) was the wife of August Schmidt; 
Henry resides at Bartlett, in cheese factory; 
Fred runs a store at Utopia. Mr. Meyer is a 
member of the Lutheran Church. 

W. D. MEYER, farmer, P. O. Elmhurst. 
William Deidrick Meyer was born in the 
Faderland, province of Hanover, June 13, 
1848. His father's name was Henry Meyer, 
a native of Germany, born August 25. 1807, 
and married Caroline Reinking, born Feb- 
ruary 6, 1822, daughter of Deitrich Reink- 
ing. Four children— one son and three 
daughters — were the offspring of Henry and 
Caroline Meyer. William D. was the eldest 
born. The girls, in order of birth, were 
Louisa, Doratha and Minnie. Louisa mar- 
ried Louis Balgemann. of Elmhurst: Doratha 
resides in Bloomingdale, wife of Herman 
Malwitz; Minnie also resides in Elinhurst, 
wife of George Balgemann. William D. was 
but three years of age when his parents came 
to this country from Germany. His father for 
some time was in partnership with his brother 
Deitrich. they working together until each 
had means to purchase. Father located on 
this farm about the year 185 1, and improved 
it, and remained here until removed by death, 
March 18, 1882: his wife yet survives. Will- 



16-1 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



iam D. now occupies and owns the homestead, 
having 120 acres. November 4, 1877, he 
married Annie, born in Lombard September 
11, 1857, daughter of Deitrick Klusmeyer; 
has one child, Robert William; one daughter, 
Alma, deceased at rive months. 

F. Q. MEYER, store, Utopia, is the rising 
young merchant of Utopia. He was born in 
the township October 10, 1855, and is the 
second son of Deitrick Meyer, a well-known 
farmer in the township. Frederick G. has, 
since his birth, been a resident of the town- 
ship, remaining on the farm until the fall of 
1879, when he came to this place and engaged 
in the employ of Arthur Robinson in the 
cheese and butter factory, and while here ob- 
tained a general knowledge of cheese manu- 
facture. "While here, he saw there was a 
good opening for a general store, and accord- 
ingly erected the storehouse he now occupies, 
and in August, 1880, he stocked up his store- 
room with groceries, dry goods, boots and 
shoes, hardware, crockery, willow ware, flour, 
notions, etc., and has since been doing an 
excellent business, being well known in the 
community, and keeping a neat and select 
stock of goods at reasonable prices, he has 
been well patronized. In January, 1881, he 
was appointed Postmaster of Utopia, which 
position he yet holds. August 10, 1881, he 
married Annie Thoma, daughter of J. M. 
Thoma, of this township. 

L. MARQUARDT, store and elevator. 
Lombard, is the junior member of the firm of 
Mail i uardt Bros. He was born September 23, 
1851. in Bloomingdale Township, the fifth 
son of Henry and Sophia (Weber) Marquardt. 
He remained at home until fourteen years of 
age. when he was sent to Fort Wayne, Ind., 
and remained here in school three years and 
a half, and then went to Chicago, on Twelfth 
street, and engaged in the grocery business, 
where he continued until July 13, 1876, when 



he came to Lombard and engaged in the 
grocery business on the corner he now occu- 
pies; was first associated with A. E. Hill; 
afterward purchased his interest and carried 
on the business alone some time; then took 
in his brother Fred, and since then the firm 
has been Marquardt Bros. They keep a 
general store, and, aside from this, have a 
large elevator and warehouse, and do a large 
business in grain, coal, bran and feed in 
general. November 1, 1877, he married 
Minnie, born March 9, 1860, in Addison 
Township, daughter of Fred Rotermund. 
He has two children, Amanda and Arthur. 
Are members of the Lutheran Church. 

MRS. FRANCES E. OGDEN, Elmhurst, 
is a native of Delhi, Delaware Co., N. Y. 
Her parents were William B. Sheldon and 
Ann Bonesteeu. He was a native of Rhode 
Island, and son of Job Sheldon, who served 
in the Revolutionary war. The maternal 
grandfather was Philip Bonesteen, whose 
wife was Maria Ollendorf. To William B. 
Sheldon were born three daughters — Maria, 
Cornelia and Frances E. (Mrs. Ogden). 
Cornelia is deceased. In 1854, Frances E. 
became the wife of Hon. Mahlon D. Ogden. 
He was born July 16, 1811, in Walton, Dela- 
ware Co., N. Y., son of Abraham and Abigail 
(Weed) Ogden, of English descent. Mr. Og- 
den went to Columbus, Ohio, in 1836, where 
he studied law under Judge Crane, and came 
to Chicago about 1840, and engaged in the 
practice of his profession. About fifteen 
years later; he associated in the real estate 
business with his brother, William B., and 
continued in this relation up to his death, 
which occurred February 7 13, 1880. In 1871, 
he was elected Alderman of his ward, and 
was a member of the St. James Episcopal 
Church. He was a stanch Republican and a 
thorough business man. He was first mar- 
ried in 1837, to Henrietta M. Kasson, who 



YORK TOWNSHIP. 



169 



died leaving two children — Charles C, now a 
resident of Little Kock, Ark. ; and Mary B., 
who resides in Chicago, wife of Gen. Will- 
iam E. Strong. In 1873, Mr. Ogden located 
on his summer residence, known as ' ' Clover 
Lawn," in Elmhurst, where he died ; his 
wife yet occupies the same during the sum- 
mer months, when not traveling, and her 
winters are passed in New York City. She 
has three children — Anna S., "William B. 
and Brernon. Is a member of the Episcopal 
Church. 

C. W. PLUMMER, farmer, P. O. Utopia, 
was born December 20, 1821, in Erie County, 
N. Y. He was a son of Caleb and Polly 
i Webster) Plummer. Caleb Webster died in 
1840. To him were born the following chil- 
dren: Sally, Polly, William, Benjamin. 
Nancy. Maria, Philura and Charles W., who 
was the youngest of the family. Our subject 
came to this county in 1848, and. the year 
following, began breaking land on Section 
15. where his land was located, and, in 1850, 
built a house, and has since been a resident 
of the township, and upon the same farm, 
which contains 120 acres Before leaving 
New York, September 17, 1848, he married 
Mary Townsend, who was born in Erie County 
February 25, 1829. in Concord. Her parents 
were Gilbert W. Townsend and Esther 
Twitchell. Gilbert W. was born in Erie 
County, N Y, February 12, 1812; Esther 
was born in Athol, Mass.. October 11, 1811, 
The Townsend family came to York Township 
from New York in 1856, locating on Section 
15. In 1874, Mi-, and Mrs. Townsend re- 
moved to Oak Park, where they now reside. 
Mr. and Mrs. Plummer have two children — 
Henry M. and Mrs. Mary E. Philips. Henry 
married Lovina Kernan: they have one child. 
Chester Henry, bora May 7. 1877. Mr. 
aud Mrs. Plummer are Protestant Metho- 
dists. 



ARTHUR ROBINSON, cheese-maker, 
Utopia, the enterprising proprietor of the 
cheese factory at Utopia, in this township, 
who was born in Derbyshire, England. July 
6, 1854, son of William Robinson and his 
wife, Catharine Palmer. Our subject received 
his instruction as a practical cheese-maker in 
his native country, having worked in the first 
cheese factory that was run on the American 
system. He came to this country in March, 
1875. Previous to his coming here, he 
worked two years in a factory in Otsego 
County, N. Y. He came to Will County, this 
State, where he started a factory at Frank- 
fort, which was operated by the farmers, 
where he continued about two years and a half. 
In the fall of 1877, he came to Du Page 
County, and engaged in the commission bus- 
iness in Chicago. The factory is at what 
is called Utopia, this township. In Jan- 
uary, 1882. he started a new factory in 
Downer's Grove Township, which is prom- 
ising good results. Mr. Robinson has 
proven himself to be a man of thorough bus- 
iness principles, and given entire satisfaction 
to his patrons. In August, 1880, he was 
married to Amelia, daughter of Henry 
Baethke, of Proviso, Cook County, and has 
one child. 

DEIDRICH STRUCKMANN was bora in 
Landesbergen, on the River Weser, province 
of Hanover. Germany, on the 29th of Novem- 
ber, 1818. After accpiiring a common school 
education, such as his poor parents could 
afford to give him, he devoted himself to the 
carpenter's profession, at which he worked 
faithfully till he proved himself as a good 
workman and mechanic, then traveling' to 
some extent in Holland and other parts of 
Eui'ope. Being a man of great enterprising 
spirit, he concluded to leave his Fatherland, 
and chose America for his future field of la- 
bor. Mr. Struckmann emigrated to New York 



170 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



in 1841. but, having no means whatever, he 
immediately looked for employment, and 
worked for several years at Sandy Hook, 
building lighthouses, etc. After working 
here awhile, he was taken sick, which, for a 
time, consumed all his earnings. In the fall 
of 1844, he came to Illinois, settling in Addi- 
son Township, Du Page County, the country 
being at that time all one open prairie. Here 
a number of his friends and countrymen had 
settled previous to him. and, havijig "Excel- 
sior " for his motto, he made himself useful 
wherever he could obtain work, for low wages, 
and, after several years, gradually worked 
himself up as a master of his calling, and, 
through his ability, his cheerful disposition 
and straightforwardness, and also his honest 
and upright character, he rapidly made 
friends, and gained the entire confidence of 
all he came in contact with. In 1848, he 
was married to Caroline Korthauer, which 
marriage was blessed with three children, 
one son and two daughters, the youngest 
daughter, Caroline, dyiog at Wheaton in 
1871, while preparing herself for teacher at 
college. He steadily increased his reputa- 
tion as a builder, and continually had to 
have more men in order to erect the many 
buildings which he had contracted for. 
Whatever building had to be done within 
many miles of where he lived, he seemed to be 
their choice, as he acted for them as contract- 
or, builder and architect. Owing to his clear 
head and sound judgment, he was generally 
successful in all his undertakings, and when- 
ever he would meet with misfortune, he 
would show a ceaseless spirit in overcoming 
it. In whatever capacity he served, he would 
fill it with honor and ability. Besides his 
professional abilities, he was also a very good 
real estate speculator, in which he was also 
very successful. He erected almost every 
building in the vicinity of where he lived, 



and put up sixteen churches, some of which 
are very large and costly structures. He 
helped to form the Addison Farmers' Mutual 
Insurance Company, for which he acted as 
agent for over twenty years. In 1875. he 
went to Europe to visit his old home, and re- 
turned after an absence of about three 
months. In 1877, he erected a large Ger- 
man seminary at Elmhurst, valued at $25,- 
000, being as nice a structure as can be found 
between Chicago and Elgin. Mr. Struckmann 
was a ceaseless toiler for business, a self- 
made man, and his name will long be remem- 
bered as one of the leading and best business 
men of Du Page County. Through his great 
enterprise and good calculations, he accumu- 
lated a large amount of property, comparing 
well with any man's standing in the county 
who built himself from nothing upward, and 
being the founder of his own fortune. He 
died at his home in Elmhurst May 4. 
1879. 

HENRY G. STRUCKMANN, only son of 
Deidrich Struckmann. deceased, was born at 
Addison, Du Page Co., 111., January 8, 1849. 
He received a good school education, attend- 
ing some good colleges, and always took 
much interest in learning. He intended to 
be a draughtsman, and worked in a Chicago 
architect's office for some time, but was 
obliged to go into other business on account 
of weak eyesight. At the age of eighteen, 
he devoted himself to the milling trade, and, 
after five years' experience commenced bus- 
iness for himself at Vernon Mills, Lake Co., 
111., where he owns a large mill property, and 
is carrying on a very successful business there. 
He is also acting as Justice of the Peace 
there, and is now serving his second term. 
September 26, 1875, Mr. Struckmann was 
married to Bertha Rotermund, daughter of 
Frederick and Wilhelmine Rotermund, liv- 
ing near Bensonville, Du Page Co., 111., and 



YORK TOWNSHIP. 



171 



two children have blessed this union — Laura 
and Arthur. 

GEORGE SAWIN. attorney at law, Elm- 
hurst, is one of the leading lawyers in Du 
Page County. He was born in Boston, Mass., 
April 14, 1834. His ancestors four genera- 
tions back came from the North of Ireland. 
His parents were John and Charlotte (Lash) 
Sawin. About the time of his majority, he 
began the study of law in the office of Hon. 
George S. Hilliard, remaining there nearly 
two years, and, from close application and 
confinement, his health became impaired, 
and he concluded to try traveling, so he ac- 
cordingly accepted a position offered by L. L. 
& W. H. Mills as general collector and ad- 
juster of accounts, remaining in their employ 
three years, also working in the same capacity 
for Stacy & Thomas one year. He then en- 
tered the law office of James P. Root, and 
was admitted to the bar, and first associated 
in practice with John Mattocks, then with 
Hon. Gilbert S. Walker, and with Chase & 
Munson. In November. 1801. he enlisted 
in the Fifty-eighth Illinois Volunteer In- 
fantry, and was commissioned First Lieuten- 
ant and assigned to the Quartermaster's de- 
partment, where he remained until after the 
battle of Shiloh. when he was assigned to the 
staff of Gen. Sweeney. He served until the 
close of the war, and came out with the rank 
of Major. During his term of service, he 
participated in the battle of Ft. Donelson, Shi- 
loh, Corinth, Iuka, Meridian, on Price's raid 
in Missouri, Pleasant Hill, and at Nashville. 
He escaped unscathed, yet had three horses 
shot from under him. Upon his return home, 
he resumed th e practice of his profession. No- 
vember 13, 1855, he married Miss Carrie L., 
who was born in Onondaga County, N. Y., 
daughter of Elijah and Charlotte (Brockway) 
Rust. This marriage has been crowned with 
the birth of three children — George, Robert 



L. and Gertrude B. George died aged one 
year; Robert L., at the age of nine; Gertrude 
B. resides at Ridgeland, in Cook County, 
wife of Morton L. Marks. Mr. Sawin located 
at Elmhurst in July. 1870, where he has 
since resided, at ' 'Clover Lawn. " Mr. Saw- 
in is one of the Trustees of the town, and is 
a member of the Episcopal Church. Is an 
honored member of the A. , F. & A. M., and, 
since November, 1881, has been Eminent 
Commander of Siloam Commandery at Oak 
Park. 

J. R. STRICKLAND, farmer, P. O. Utopia, 
born June 28, 1822, in Broome County. N. 
Y. His father's name was Ebenezer Strick- 
land, who served in the war of 1812; he 
married Mary Mack, and by her had fourteen 
children, of whom John Rogers, our subject, 
was the eighth in order of birth. The 
Stricklands came to Du Page County in 1839, 
and located where Mr. Hesterman now re- 
sides. Ebenezer removed to Iowa in 1866, 
and there died. John R. was brought up to 
farming, but went to Chicago, where he 
worked a short time. In August, 1847, he 
married Cirinthia Barus, born in Berkshire 
County. Mass. . daughter of James and Tem- 
perance (Chi Ids) Barus, who came West in 
1840.' In 1848, Mr. Strickland located where 
he now lives, purchasing 120 acres of land, 
upon which there were no improvements. 
His wife died March, 1878. March 4, 1880, 
he married Mrs. Maria Cavanaugh, a native 
of Du Page County, daughter of Patrick 
Mulnix. who was an early settler. Mr. 
Strickland has been identified with the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church for thirty years. 

SETH WADHAMS, general business, 
Elmhurst, President of the Washington Ice 
Company of Chicago, is a resident of Elm- 
hurst and has been identified with the State 
since 1835. He was born October 2D, 1812, 
in Litchfield County, Conn., son of David 



172 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



Wadhams, born March 4, 1769, and died in 
1829. The mother of our subject was Phebe 
Collins, who bore her husband sixteen chil- 
dren, all of whom grew to maturity, but only 
four of whom are now living — Phebe, Mrs. 
Roswell Carter, of Chicago; Mortimer, in 
Rochester. N. Y. ; Carleton, in South Bend, 
Ind. ; and our subject, Seth, who left home 
at the age of nineteen and clerked for about 
three years in dry goods store at Rochester. 
N. Y. .after which he decided to cast his fort- 
unes with the then wild State of Illinois, 
and came first to Vandalia, Fayet*e County, 
but did not remain there long, coming, in July 
of the same year, to Chicago, which, at that 
time, had less than one thousand inhabitants; 
yet, as small as the place was, Mr. Wadhams 
grasped the idea readily that Chicago was 
destined to become a great city. Turned his 
attention at whatever he could do; worked in 
harvest at 75 cents per day and boarded him- 
self; afterward clerked for Norton & Case in 
Chicago, and, subsequently, for Ryerson & 
Blakeley, dealers in hardware. While in 
their employ, he sold the first piece of bar 
iron ever sold in Chicago. Afterward, he took 
an interest in foundry and machine shop with 



H. P. Moses, and remained about three years, 
and then went into the ice business in Chicago, 
which business he has built up from a capital 
of a few thousand, until it now has become 
one of the largest in the city, and, in fact, in 
the West. In 1868, he began improving the 
place he now owns, which is called "White 
Birch," and it is one of the most desirable 
residences in the State. In January, 1849, 
he was married to Elizabeth McKenney, a 
native of Hartford, Conn., daughter of David 
McKenney. Her grandmother was a Wal- 
cott, which was one of the old and substan- 
tial families in early time. She died sud- 
denly, at her home, Sunday, July 9, 1882, 
and was buried in Graceland Cemetery. Mr. 
Wadhams has no children living; had one 
child, Dana T. , which died aged six and a 
half years. He has property of great value 
in Chicago, and is yet actively engaged in 
business. Though now having attained 
nearly his threescore years and ten, he pos- 
sesses all the vigor of mind and body that is 
usually seen in men of forty. In politics 
and religion, he has taken but little interest, 
yet he was the first Assessor of personal prop- 
erty in the county. 



WINFIELD 

G. J. ATCHERSON, retired, P. O. Turner, 
is a native of Rockingham, Vt. He was born 
in the year 1825, and was raised on the farm. 
He received a limited common-school edu- 
cation. At the age of thirteen, his father 
died, and he worked with his brother till he 
became of age. He then began peddling, 
and traveled by wagon in that line for nine 
years, selling tinware the first year, and dry 
goods and notions thereafter. He then came 
West and rented a farm on Salt Creek, Du 
Page County, 111., and the next year, he 



TOWNSHIP. 

moved to Turner Junction and engaged in 
buying hides, r furs and wool. He also kept 
a boarding house, and, about three years la- 
ter, he added the boot and shoe business. 
About 1870, he began dealing exclusively in 
hides and fur. Since the spring of 1881, he 
has retired from active business. Politi- 
cally, he was formerly a Free-Soiler, and Re- 
publican since the organization of the party. 
He has held the office of Poor Master, and 
has served as Supervisor of W infield Town- 
ship for three years. In 1855, he married 



WINFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



173 



Mrs. Mary Ann Bolles, formerly Miss Wea- 
ver, a native of Rockingham, Vt. They have 
no children. By her first marriage there 
were three children, two living— Charles E. 
Bolles, now living in Oak Park, 111. ; and 
Delia I. Davis, living in Windsor, Vt. 

WILLIAM ADAMSON, deceased, was 
born in Yorkshire. England, in the year 
1818. He lived in his native land until he 
was twenty-five years of age. He worked at 
mining, and in 1841 married Miss Harriet 
Squires, a native of Yorkshire. In 1843, 
they came to America, in company with Mrs. 
Sqitires, her son and daughters, and bought 
a farm one mile south of Turner and lived 
there. About 1860, Mrs. Squires and her 
son went to Kansas, where she died soon 
after. Mr. Adamson died in 1876, on the 
farm, and Mrs. Adamson lived there until 
1879, when she came to Turner. By the 
marriage there were twelve children, of whom 
three are living — William, on homestead; 
Mrs. Sarah A. Pernel. living in this county; 
Mary E., at home. 

JACOB BARTSH. farmer, P. O. Geneva, 
is a native of Baden, Germany, He was 
born in the year 1812. He was raised a 
farmer, and received a common-school edu- 
cation. In 1832, he came to America, and 
first stopped at Lithopolis, Ohio, and worked 
at a hotel, and in 1834 he went to New Lan- 
oaster, and the following year he joined a 
circus and traveled with them for four years, 
and then hired as coachman in Cincinnati, 
and lived there about seven years. During 
the latter part of the time, he kept a livery 
stable, and then went to farming in Shelby 
County, Ohio, where he lived a number of 
years. He then, in 1850, came to Du Page 
County, and bought eighty-five acres in W in- 
field Township, finally getting 230 acres. 
While in Cincinnati, he married Ragena Har- 
mon, a native of Alsace, France. She died 



here in Du Page County, and was buried at 
Geneva. They had nine children, of whom 
four are living. About four years after the 
death of his first wife, he married Mrs. Fogt. 
She lived in Shelby County, Ohio. They 
have one child, Julia. He sold his farm to 
his son-in-law and moved to Geneva. 

HENRY BRADLEY, grain-dealer, Turner, 
is a native of Berkshire County, Mass. He 
was born in the year 1834, and is seventh of 
twelve children born to Ebenezer and Abi- 
gail (Sturges) Bradley. They were natives of 
Massachusetts. They married there, and 
came West in 1847 and settled on a farm lo- 
cated on the line between Du Page and Kane 
Counties, 111., three miles west of Turner 
Junction, where they now live, at the ad- 
vanced ages of eighty-seven and eighty-four 
respectively, both in good health, body and 
mind. Our subject was raised on the farm, 
and received a common-school education. At 
the age of nineteen, he began working on his 
own account, with his brothers on the farm, 
and, some three years later, he engaged, in 
partnership with Mr. Fowler, of Batavia, in 
the lumber business, and continued in the 
business four or five years, and soon after 
came to Turner Junction, where he engaged 
in the grain business and shipping stock, 
which he has continued since. He is a Re- 
publican in politics. In 1S59, he married 
Miss Mary Lathrop, a native of Massachu- 
setts. By the marriage there are four chil- 
dren — Clarence, Fannie. Grace and David. 

DARIUS BARTHOLOMEW, farmer, P. 
O. Batavia, is a native of Du Page County, 
111. He was born in 1844, and is the second 
of five children born to Bishop and Almina 
Jones Bartholomew, who are spoken of else- 
where in this work. Mr. Bartholomew was 
raised on the farm and received a common- 
school education. In August, 1862, he en- 
listed in the One Hundred and Fifth Regi- 



174 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



ment Illinois Infantry, Company D, and 
served until the close of the war. He was 
with the command at the battle of Resaca, 
Atlanta campaign, the march to the sea, and 
the other engagements of the regiment. 
From the army he returned home and farmed 
the home farm on the shares until 1871, 
when he married Miss Hannah E. Lehman, 
a native of Pennsylvania. She came to Dn 
Page County, 111., with her parents. After 
the marriage, he bought and occupied his 
present place, which contains 136 acres, lo- 
cated three miles east of Batavia. By the 
marriage there are two children — Arlind E. 
and Walton H. He is Republican in politics. 

THOMAS BROWN, farming, P. O. Tur- 
ner, is a native of England. He was born 
in the year 1812. In 1831, he came to 
America and located in Schenectady County, 
N. Y., where he worked on the farm until 
1842. He then worked a year in Onondaga 
County. In 1843, he came West by the 
lakes. He first stopped a few weeks at Bata- 
via. He then bought forty acres of the Gov- 
ernment here in Winfield Township, and 
rented a farm adjoining, and he has farmed 
ever since. He now owns 110 acres, located 
adjoining the village of Turner. In 1834, 
he married Miss Cornelia M. Van Valken- 
burg, a native of New York. By the mar- 
riage there have been seven children, of 
whom three are living. He is a Republican. 
He has held the office of Highway Commis- 
sioner. The throe children living are Will- 
iam H. , mining in Montana; Mary, at home; 
Mark, on a cattle ranch in Montana. 

D. C. BROWN, farming, P. O. Warren- 
ville, is a native of Wayne County, N. Y. 
He was born in the year 1834, and is the eld- 
est of nine children born to James and Annie' 
(Crane) Brown. They were natives of New 
York, and married there January 10, 1833, 
and came West in the fall of 1836. They 



came by team and lake, and made a claim to 
the present place. She died here on the farm 
in 1858. He married a Mrs. Scofield, May 
9, 1858. They moved to Wheaton in 1868, 
and he died there in 1879. She is living 
there at present. They had one child, 
George Brown. Our subject has always lived 
on the old homestead. He received a com- 
mon-school education, and, at the age of six- 
teen, he took the management of the farm, 
and, in 1868, he bought the same. In 1857, 
he married Miss Louisa Bean, a native of 
Ohio. They have four children. He is a 
Republican; has served two terms as Road 
Commissioner, and has been School Director 
for nearly thirty years. He owns 175 acres, 
located three miles west of Warren villa 

CAPT. L. B. CHURCH, retired, Turner, 
is a native of Wyoming County, N. Y. He 
was born in 1833, and is the fifth of ten chil- 
dren born to Liicas B. and Betsy (Patterson) 
Church, the latter an own cousin to Mrs. Bon- 
aparte. They were natives of Cayuga County, 
N. Y., and Colerain, Mass. Thej- married in 
New York. He was engaged in the lumber 
business, having mills on the Genesee, and 
a yard in Rochester. The mills were de- 
stroyed by floods, and, in 1844, the family 
came West and settled in McHenry County, 
111., where they followed farming at Crystal 
Lake, where he died in 1849. She died there 
in 1878. Our subject lived at home until he 
became of age. He then began as agent for 
the stage company on the old Galena & Chi- 
cago Railroad, and in 1857 he became the 
proprietor of the Junction House. In 1862, 
he enlisted in the One Hundred and Fifth 
Regiment Illinois Infantry. He was made 
First Lieutenant, Company B, and served six 
months with his regiment. He was then de- 
tailed upon the staff of Gen. W. T. Ward, of 
Kentucky, and, a year later, was ordered to 
his regiment, and again detailed on the staff 



WINFIELU TOWXSHIP. 



175 



of Gen. E. A. Payne, and, a year later, was 
detailed on the staff of Gen. Saul Merideth, 
of Indiana, and, five months later, joined his 
regiment, being promoted to Captain of his 
company, joining the command at Roanoke, 
N. C. Returned home in June, 1865. He 
then became the traveling agent of the Lake 
Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad for five 
years. He was then appointed one of the 
Assistant Supervisors of Illinois in the Inter- 
nal Revenue Department, and, about six 
months later, was relieved and appointed In- 
ternal Revenue Assessor for Montana, where 
he served until 1873, when he returned home 
and took his old position with the Lake Shore 
& Michigan Railroad, and, three years later, 
he was made General Western Passenger 
Agent of the Hoosac Tunnel Line, headquar- 
ters at Chicago, and remained with them un- 
til 1879, when, owing to ill health, he had to 
retire, and has since looked chiefly after his 
health. November 23, 1854, he married Miss 
Clara Haffey, a native of Schoharie County, 
N. Y. She lived at Franklinville, 111., with 
her parents. He is Republican. 

JAMES CONLEY, farmer, P. O. Turner, 
is a native of Tipperary County, Ireland. 
He was born in the year 1822, and was 
brought up on the farm, receiving a fair 
common-school education. In 1834, his par- 
ents came to America and settled in St. 
Lawrence County, N. Y. In 1839, Mr. 
James Conley came West to Illinois, and lo- 
cated with his brother in Livingston Count}-, 
where he worked on the farm. In 1843, he 
married Miss Eliza Sutter, and, the next your. 
came to Du Page County, where he bought 
forty acres of land in Winfield Township, 
and has farmed in the vicinity ever since. 
During the past twelve years, hehas also con- 
ducted the eating-stand at the depot in Tur- 
ner. By the marriage there are three chil- 
dren. 



C. M. CLARK, dealer in lumber and coal, 
Turner, is a native of Canada. He was born 
in the year 1830. When two years of age, 
his parents removed to Syracuse, N. Y., 
where he was raised. He received a com- 
mon-school education. Ai the ageof twenty, 
he began teaching public school in the vicin- 
ity of Syracuse, and taught for five or six 
years. In 1856, he came West, and taught 
school two winters in Wisconsin. He then 
taught four winters at Gary's Mills, in Du 
Page County, 111., and five winters at Turner, 
after which he engaged in the lumber and 
coal business at Turner, and has continued 
same since. In 1859, he married Miss Ar- 
villa, daughter of the Rev. R. Currier. She 
was born in New Hampshire, and came to 
Turner with her parents. She died in 1865. 
They have had one child, viz., Charles D. 
Clark, now attending Wheaton College. In 
1867, he married Miss Amanda E. Williams. 
She was born near Syracuse, N. Y., where, 
also, she was married. He is Republican in 
his politics. He has served as Town Clerk, 
Village Trustee, and a member of the School 
Board for the past twelve years, and has 
taken an active interest in securing efficiency 
to the school. 

JUDGE THOMAS DRUMMOND, Win- 
field, was born October 16. ISO 1 ,), at Bristol 
Mills, Lincoln Co., Me. His father, James 
Drummond, descended from a Scottish line; 
was a sailor, a farmer, and for many years. 
a legislator of bis State. Young Drum- 
mond took his course through the common 
schools, the academies, to prepare him for 
college, and, at his majority he was a grad- 
uate of Old Bowdoin. His next three years 
were spent- as a student in the law office of 
T. Dwight, of Philadelphia, whose f either was 
President of Yale College. He was admitted 
to the bar in 1S33, and, in 1835, made his 
professional start in life in Galena, 111. . and 



176 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



never lost sight of his original aim in life. 
He soon won distinction among his peers, as 
.the sequel showed. His law practice grew 
into large proportions, and, in 1850, he re 
ceived substantial proofs of the public esti- 
mation of his able jurisprudence by being 
appointed Judge of the Northern District 
Court of Illinois, The duties and responsi- 
bilities of his office soon multiplied on his 
hands, in proportion as the country increased 
in wealth, and with it the inevitable rivalship 
of growing interests, only to be harmonized 
by the principles of general law, and never, 
since the days of Moses, the great law-giver, 
did a jurist find more versatility, more com- 
plexity, and more fallow ground to break, 
than has come under the jurisdiction of Mr. 
Drummond since he has been clothed with the 
ermine. Since December, 1869, he has been 
Judge of the Circuit Court of the United 
States for the Seventh Judicial District, em- 
braced in the States of Illinois, Indiana and 
Wisconsin. His rural home, near W infield, 
to which he came in 1868, evinces his love 
for domestic life, in its immunity from the 
turmoil of metropolitan centers like Chicago. 
Here, at this tranquil retreat, he entertains 
his coterie of friends who visit him and en- 
joy his pleasant surroundings at the same 
time. He has a large family, two of whom 
have died — his daughter, Annie E., in 1869, 
and his wife in 1874. To his neighbors he 
is plain Mr. Drummond at home, and in his 
official capacity, when they uncover their 
heads before His Honor, it is done with all 
the more genuine respect. 

JOHN FAIRBANKS, deceased, Turner, is 
a native of England. He was born in the 
year 1806, and came to America with his par- 
ents. They settled in Wyoming County, N. 
Y. His father was a clothier, and John 
learned the same trade. When he was about 
twenty-five years of age, he went to Erie 



Co., N. Y. , and conducted a woolen factory 
in Amherst, now Cheektowaga, N. Y. While 
here, he m .Tried, in May, 1838, Miss Pame- 
lia Levens. She was a native of Erie County, 
N. Y. After the marriage, they came to Illi- 
nois and settled on a claim he had bought in 
the previous year, in what is now Winfield 
Township, Du Page County, where he lived 
until his death, on January 11, 1879. He 
was a Republican, and served as Supervisor 
of his township a number of years. They 
had six children, of whom three are living — 
Mrs. Almina Chatfield, of Turner; Judson 
Fairbanks, on the old homestead; and Nellie 
Fairbanks, at home. Mrs. Fairbanks lives 
in Turner. 

JAMES FAIRBANK, farming, P. O. 
Turner, is a native of Yorkshire, England. 
He was born in the year 1814, and is the 
seventh of nine children born to Francis and 
Jennie Shaw Fairbanks. They were natives 
of England. They married there; also all 
the children were born there. He was a 
manufacturer of woolen goods. About the 
year 1820, they came to America, and located 
in Genesee County, N. Y. , where they farmed 
uni.il their death, he in 1847, and she some 
four or five years later. John Fairbanks, the 
eldest son of Francis, manufactured woolen 
goods in New York until 1837, when he and 
his brother James started by teams for the 
West. They proceeded as far as Erie, Penn., 
when, owing to the roads, James took the 
wagons, etc., and went to Chicago by boat, 
John going through on horseback, they meet- 
ing at Warrenville, 111. John bought a claim 
about three miles northwest of Warrenville, 
and lived there until his death. James 
worked by the month at farming for a few 
years, and then worked at carpenter work for 
a number of years. He also bought a claim 
to his present place, and has lived on the 
same since. In 1839 he married Miss Maria 



WINFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



177 



Blackmail, a native of Erie County, N. Y. 
She died a few' months after the marriage. 
He married Miss Electa Chandler, a native 
of Genesee County, N. Y. She came to Du 
Page County, 111., with her parents in 1836. 
By the marriage there were two children, of 
whom one is living, Allen H. He was 
Democratic in his politics in early days, then 
Abolitionist, and has voted Republican since 
the organization of the party. He owns 220 
acres, located three miles south of Turner. 

GEORGE FEHRMAN, of George Fehr- 
man & Son, Winfield, is a native of Hanover, 
Germany. He was born in the year 1822. 
He was raised a farmer, and, at the age of 
fifteen, he apprenticed to the tailor's trade, 
and served four years, and worked some five 
years as a journeyman. In 1849, he came to 
America, and first stopped at Dnnkle's Grove, 
now Addison Township, Du Page Co. , 111. , 
where he worked at his trade one year, and 
then opened out for himself at Addison Vil- 
lage, and, some two or three years later, he 
added general merchandise, and continued 
the business until 1865, when he sold out and 
lived three years in Chicago and conducted 
a produce commission business. He then 
went to Lombard, in Du Page County, where 
he conducted general store until 1871, when 
he went to Bloomingdale Township and 
farmed three years. He then rented his farm 
and came to Winfield, and, two years later, 
he and his son William opened the present 
store. In 1853, he married Miss Catharine 
Oehman, a native of Germany. She died in 
1870. By the marriage there were seven 
children, six of whom are living. In 1876, 
he married Mrs. Kerch. 

JOHN M. FAESSLER, retired, Turner, 
is a native of Baden, Germany. He was born 
in the year 1828, June 11. His father, also 
his grandfather, were carpenters, and he 
learned the same trade, and, at the age of 



twenty, came to America. He worked one 
year in New York City, and then went to 
Portsmouth, Ohio, where he worked for about 
four years. In the fall of 1854, came to 
Turner, 111., and bought a farm, two and a 
half miles west of the town, where he farmed 
until 1869, when he removed to Turner, where 
he has lived since. In 1852, he married, at 
Portsmouth, Ohio, Miss Mary Walter, a na- 
tive of Germany. She came to America two 
years after he did. They were acquainted in 
the old country. They had five children, of 
whom but one is living, Charles F. M. Faes- 
sler. The four deceased all died within one 
week, by the scarlet fever. He is Repub 
lican in his politics. He is a member of the 
Evangelical Association, and is one of the 
pioneer members of the St. Michael's Church 
of that denomination in Turner. Mrs. Faes- 
sler is also a member of the church. Dur- 
ing his residence in Turner, Mr. Faessler 
has farmed his place by a tenant. 

SEBA FRENCH, farmer, P. O. Warreti- 
ville, is a native of Painesville, Lake Co., 
Ohio. He was born in the year 1819, and 
was raised on a farm. He received a limited 
common-school education. His father was 
a clothier by trade, though, in later years, 
followed farming. He also conducted a saw- 
mill. Our subject worked on the farm, and, 
in 1842, married Miss Elizabeth Clark, a na- 
tive of New York. She died here in Illinois. 
They had three children — Abigail Peas, liv- 
ing in Wisconsin; D. C. French, living in 
Boone County, 111. ; Lucy R. Brown, living 
in Parsons, Kan. In 1862, he married 
Miss Harriet Woodburn, a native of New 
Hampshire, and living in Lake County, Ohio, 
at time of marriage. They have one child, 
Hattie E. In February, 1854, Mr. French 
came to Illinois and bought a place one mile 
north of Naperville, where he farmed two 
years, and then came to his present place, 



178 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



which contains 129 acres, located one mile 
west of Warrenville. ' He is a Democrat in 
politics, and has served as Road Commis- 
sioner one term. 

JACOB A. GALUSHA, retired farmer, 
Warrenville, is a native of Burlington, Vt. 
He was born in the year 1803, and is the 
second of ten children born to Ezra and Ma- 
bel Barney Galusha. They were natives of 
Connecticut and Vermont. He was a farmer, 
and, when a young man, went to Vermont, 
where he married, and, in 1834, they came 
to Illinois and located on a claim in what is 
now Milton Township, Du Page Co. , 111. , and 
lived there a few years, and lived thereafter 
with their sou until their death. Our sub- 
ject was raised on the farm. He received a 
common-school education. On becoming of 
age, he began on his own account, farming a 
piece of land he had bought, and upon which 
the family lived. In 1833, he came West, 
over the canal and lakes, and made a claim 
to his present place, and, the nest year, his 
father sold the property in Vermont and came 
West with his family and made a claim ad- 
joining his son's. Mr. Jacob A. Galusha 
was married to Miss Parmelia K. Foote, of 
Kane County, 111. She died in 1870. They 
had three children — Ezra and Edwin, farm- 
ing the old homestead; and Mrs. Cora Han- 
cock, of Chicago. In 1872, he married Mrs. 
Bisbee, formerly Annie Jayne, a native of 
Susrpiehanna County, Penn. She came to 
Du Page County, 111., in 1804. By the first 
marriage, she had three children — Alonzo and 
Albert, farming in Nebraska; and Mrs. Net- 
tie Henderson, living in Beedsburg, Wis. 
He is Republican in his politics, and a mem- 
ber of the Universalist Church since he was 
a young man. 

JUDE P. GARY, deceased, was a native 
of Pomfret, Windom Co., Conn. He was 
born February 3, 1811, and was one of the pio- 



neers of Du Page County, 111., where he set- 
tled in the year 1832, making a claim near 
the present village of Warrenville, fuller par- 
ticulars of which are given in another part 
of this work. In 1851, he married Miss 
Margaret L., daughter of the Rev. Mr. Kim- 
ball, who is spoken of elsewhere in this work. 
She died July 25, 1862. By the marriage 
there were eight children — George P., Lucy 
M., Leora M., Jude F., Lovisa J., Edwin A., 
Laura E. and William S. In 1863, Mr. 
Gary married Mrs. Dr. Rose, formerly Miss 
L. M. Sherwood, a native of Chenango County, 
N. Y., born April 28, 1827, by which marriage 
there were born four children, three of whom 
are living — Eben S. Gary, Lewis E. Gary and 
Charles L. Gary. By her first marriage, Mrs. 
Gary had one child, Mrs. Mary Rose Wilson. 
Mr. Gary died May 11, 1881. Mrs. Gary is 
living on the old homestead near Warrenville. 
C. W. GARY, hardware, tinware and agri- 
cultural implements, Turner Junction, is a 
native of Du Page County, 111., and is the 
youngest son of Charles Gary. He was born 
on his father's farm, located two miles south 
of Turner, in the year 1844. He received a 
commou -school education. At the age of 
twenty, he began farming on his own account, 
farming the home farm on the shares, and, 
on becoming of age, his father deeded him 
100 acres, and, after his father's death, he 
bought out the heirs, and now owns the home 
farm of 250 acres. In 1877, he bought the 
hardware business of J. W. Gates & Co., 
and has conducted the business since. He is 
Republican in politics, and has held the office 
of Supervisor for two years. In 1864, he 
married Miss Maria Pierce, a native of Du 
Page County. She died in 1873, leaving 
three children — Charles E., Mary Nettie and 
Ella M. In 1874, he married Miss Mary 
Baker, native of the State of Ohio, near Cleve- 
land. Her parents died when she was a 



WINFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



181 



child, and she made her home with her un- 
cle, at St. Charles, 111. They have one child, 
Lula. 

G. W. GUILD, farming, P. O. Warren- 
ville. is a native of Huntingdon County, N. 
J. He was born in the year 1837, and is the 
eldest of eleven children born to A. E. and 
Suzan A. Warne Guild. They were natives 
of New Jersey and now live in Cook County, 
111. In 1839, they moved to Fulton County, 
111., and, about 1843, moved to Sugar Grove, 
Kane County, and thence to Cook County. 
Our subject lived at home until he was about 
twenty years of age. He received a common- 
school education, attending the Wheaton 
College for two years. In 1857, he came to 
Du Page County, and worked on the farm of 
Mi-. John Warne, and, the next year, rented 
the place, and farmed it several years. He 
then bought the present place where he now 
resides, and, in 1881, he bought the adjoin- 
ing place, now owning 220 acres, located one 
mile west of Warrenville. In 1858, he mar- 
ried Miss Abbie E. Warne, a native of Du 
Page County, 111., daughter of John Warne, 
Esq. By the marriage there is one child — 
John W. — and an adopted daughter, Augusta 
Guild. He is Republican in politics. 

FRANK J. HAGEMAN, farming, P. O. 
Winfield, is a native of Du Page County, 111. 
He was born on his father's farm, in Win- 
field Township, in the year 1852, and is 
fourth of five children born to Frederick and 
Margaret Snyder Hageman. They were na 
tives of Germany. Frederick Hageman came 
to America with his parents when a young 
man, and she with her parents when seven 
years old. On the way over, his mother and 
brother were drowned. He and his father 
went to Chicago. His father was a physician, 
and practiced in Chicago. Frederick studied 
medicine in Germany, and got his diploma 
in the Rush Medical College, Chicago, and 



also practiced in that city. He first ran on 
the lakes, and made headquarters at Buffalo, 
where he married. His father died in Chi- 
cago. Frederick came to Du Page County 
about 1850, and settled on a farm in Winfield 
Township. He bought first forty acres, and 
added to it until he had 325 acres. Shortly 
after coming here, he retired to Wheaton, 
and lived thereat the time of his death. Mrs. 
Hageman is living there at present. While 
in Chicago, he served as City Physician and 
Alderman. Frank J. was raised in Wheaton. 
He received a course of stud.y in Wheaton 
College, and learned the painter's trade, 
which he followed about five years. August 
11, 1877, he married Miss Emma Batchelor, 
a native of Du Page County, 111. They have 
three children — Lucy, George and Frank. 
After the marriage, he came on the old home- 
stead farm, and has farmed it since. 

MATHIAS HILLS, general store, Win- 
field, is a native of Prussia. He was born in 
the year 1831. He was raised a fanner. He 
received a common-school education. In 
1854, he came to America, and stopped a few 
months in Michigan, and thence to Chicago, 
and, after a fow months of sickness, he went 
to Lake County. 111., and dealt in stock for 
two ■ years. He then rented a farm and 
farmed for about six or seven years, and next 
went to Cook County and opened a butcher 
shop at West Wheeling, now Arlington 
Heights. He remained there three years. 
He then came to Winfield and engaged in 
his present business, and has continued since. 
He is Democratic in politics; has served as 
Postmaster of Winfield for about four years. 
He also served as agent for the American Ex- 
press Company for six years, and station agent 
for the NorthWestern Railway Company at 
Winfield for three 'years, and Collector of 
township for one year. In 1855, he married 
Miss Barbara Nilles, a native of Prussia. 



183 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



They had seven children, five living — Jacob 
P., Toony, Mary, Eva, Katie. 

M. W. HAWKS, carpenter, Turner, is a 
native of Goshen, Hampshire Co ,Mass. He 
was born in the year 1817. When he was 
fourteen years of age, he apprenticed to the 
carpenter's trade, and served until he became 
of age, after which he worked transient as a 
journeyman, at Amherst, on the college. He 
also traveled three years in Canada. While 
there, he married Miss Julia Wait. She died 
in July, 1876. From Canada he came to 
Chicago, where he lived until February, 
1846, when he came to W infield Township, 
Du Page Co., 111., where his brother-in-law 
lived, and bought a small place and farmed 
the same in connection with his trade as car- 
penter, and lived thereuntil a few years ago, 
when he moved to his present place, in the 
village of Turner. By his marriage there 
were seven children, of whom four are living 
— Mary Church, resides near Milwaukee; 
Cloye Jones, resides in Beatrice, Neb. ; Arthur 
Hawk, telegraph operator ; Clifford Hawk, 
engineer on North-Western Railway. Sep- 
tember 16, 1877, he married Hannah Akers, a 
native of Fulton County, Penn. She resided 
in Wheaton at the time of her marriage. He 
is Republican in politics; was Whig, anti- 
slavery. He is a member of the Congrega- 
tional Church. 

NEWTON HAWKS, farming, P. O. Tur- 
ner, is a native of Goshen, Hampshire Co., 
Mass. He was born in the year 1819. His 
father was a physician, and died when New- 
ton was young, and our subject was raised in 
the village until he was eleven years of age. 
He then went on the farm, living with a rel- 
ative until he became of age. He then 
worked one year in a saw-mill, and six years 
in a flower garden at North Hampton. He 
then, in 18-47, came West and worked at the 
carpenter business in Chicago for one year, 



when he came to Du Page County and bought 
his present place, though he rented for two 
years before he occupied his place, and has 
lived here ever since. In 1858, he married 
Miss Jane Wood, a native of Vermont. She 
came to Du Page County, 111., with her par- 
ents about 1854. They have three children 
— Wilbur D., Louisa C. and Theron B. Mr. 
Hawks is Republican in politics. He has 
served in the school offices, and as Road 
Commissioner. He owns eighty acres, locat- 
ed one and a fourth miles southwest of Tur- 
ner. 

BENJAMIN HOWARTH, livery, feed and 
sale, Turner, is a native of New York. He was 
born in Auburn, N. Y., in the year 1843, and 
is the fourth of six children born to Sanders 
and Mary Peacock Howarth. They were na- 
tives of England. They married there, and 
moved to New York soon after, and in 1844, 
they moved to St. Charles, Kane Co., 111., 
and in 1846, settled in Milton Township, two 
miles north of Wheaton, where they carried 
on farming. He died there in 1879. She is 
livtng with her daughter, in Wayne Town- 
ship. Our subject was raised on the farm. 
About 1868, he farmed the home farm on the 
shares, and, in 1875, went to Kane County, 
where he farmed one year; he then moved 
on a farm two miles south of Wheaton. and, 
in 1878, came to Turner and engaged in his 
present business. In 1875, he married Miss 
Emma Vandervolgin, a native of New York. 
He is Republican in politics. 

WILLIAM J. HOLLISTER, farmer, P. 
O. Batavia, is a native of Berkshire County, 
Mass. He was born in the year 1840, and is 
the youngest of five children born to G. J. and 
A. M. Fuller Hollister They were natives 
of Massachusetts and Vermont. He was a 
wollen-manufacturer. In 1846, they came 
West, and bought a place lying on both sides 
of the county line of Du Page and Kane 



WINFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



183 



Counties, where he farmed until his death, in 
1880. Mrs. Hollister died in 1875. Our 
subject was raised on the farm: He received 
an academic course of study at the academy 
in Batavia. In 1862, he enlisted in the One 
Hundred and Twenty-fourth Regiment Illi- 
nois Infantry, Company B, and was in the 
service three years. The first year, he served 
as Clerk in the Commissary Department. 
He was in the siege and capture of Vicks- 
burg, siege and capture of Mobile, and the 
other engagements of the regiment. He re- 
turned home from the army, and, in 1866, he 
married Miss Ella Carpenter, a daughter of 
A. E. Carpenter, an old pioneer of Du Page 
County, now resident in Aurora, 111. He 
lived on the old homestead the first year after 
he was married, and then came to his present 
place, where he has lived since. By the mar- 
riage there are three children — Bertha M., 
Freddie A. and Robie C. He is Republican. 
Owns 150 acres located in Du Page and Kane 
Counties. 

A. H. JONES, farmer, P. O. Turner, is a 
native of White Hall, Washington Co., N. 
Y. He was born in the year 1S24, and is 
the second of eleven children born to Cornel- 
ius and Fannie M. Wilson Jones. They 
were natives of Washington County, N. Y. 
They married there and, a few years after, 
moved to Providence, R. I., and, in company 
with Mr. Jerry Breede, owned and conducted 
a canal boat for three years. He then re- 
turned to his native county in New York and 
farmed until 1835, when he and Reuben Jones, 
a son of his half-brother, with their families, 
came West by teams to Illinois, and settled 
on the east side of the Big Woods, in what is 
now Naperville Township, Du Page County, 
where they bought claims and occupied and 
improved the same. In 1850, Mr. Jones went 
overland with two of his sons, Franklin and 
Hiram, to California, where he mined on the 



Yuba River for about three years. Ho then 
came home and sold out and moved to Iowa, 
where he lived for four years, when he re- 
turned to a place he bought in W infield 
Township, where he lived until 1875, when 
they moved to Batavia, where they now live, 
both of whom have passed the age of eighty. 
Our subject lived at home until the year 1847, 
when he married Miss Susan Warne, a native 
of New Jersey. She came to Du Page County, 
111., with her parents, in 1834. After the 
marriage, they occupied a part of his father's 
farm, where he farmed until 1852, when he 
went overland by learn to California, and 
mined one year, and farmed two years in 
Santa Clara Valley. He then returned home, 
and, soon after, bought and occupied his 
present place, where he has since lived. By 
the marriage there are five children, all 
daughters — Sarah M. Delana, farming in 
Linn County, Iowa; "Emma E. Hodges, of 
Turner, 111. ; Mary Hummel, farming in Ne- 
braska; Carrie, at home; Josephine, at home. 
Mr. Jones is Republican. He owns 160 
acres, located two and a half miles northwest 
of Turner. 

J. J. KAUTZ, farming, P. O. Turner, is a 
native of Baden, Germany. He was born in « 
the year 1828. He was raised on the farm. 
He received a common-school education, and, 
at the age of twenty, he entered the army, 
and was engaged in the war or rebellion 
against Prussia. In 1840, he came to Amer- 
ica, and stopped in Erie Couny N. Y., where 
he worked at farming and lumbering for 
about two years, when he came to Illinois and 
located at Turner, where he had relatives. 
He worked at gardening, and, the following 
spring, his parents. Christian and MaryPfei- 
fer Kautz, came and bought a farm in Win- 
field Township, Du Page County, where they 
lived until their death. J. J. Kautz worked 
on the Galena & Chicago Railroad, he being 



184 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



foreman of a gang of laborers, and, the next 
winter, went to live with his parents, and has 
lived on the farm since, he buying out the 
heirs after their death. He married, in 1856, 
Miss Saloma Hansel, a native of Germany. 
She came to America with his parents in 
1852. They had nine children, of whom 
three are living — Christian, farmer in Kane 
County, Charles, at home; Louisa, at home. 
He owns 208 acres, located on county line, 
three miles west of Turner. 

MARTIN KAUTZ, farming, P. O. Geneva, 
is a native of Baden, Germany. He was born 
in the year 1829. He was raised on the farm 
and received a common-school education. In 
May, 1855, he came to America and settled in 
Turner, 111., where he had relatives living. 
He then worked as a helper to a mason in 
Geneva, and then rented one of his present 
places for four years, and then bought the 
place, and has lived there since. He now 
owns 223 acres, located on the line, three 
miles west of Turner. In 1855, he married 
Miss Barbara Hawk, a native of Baden, Ger- 
many. She came to America on the same 
vessel he did, and also came to this county 
with him; they were married a few months 
later. They have seven children — Carrie 
Wolf, farming in Kansas; Mary, Martin, Jr., 
Jacob, Frederick, Barbara, Christina. He 
has earned all his property. 

EDWARD LAMBE, milling, Warrenville, 
is a native of Yorkshire, England; he was 
born in the year 1831; he received a common- 
school education, and, at the age of fifteen, 
began clerking in a railroad office, where he 
continued about three and a half years. In 
1850, he came to America with his parents, 
William and Mary Watson Lambe; they were 
natives of Yorkshire; they settled on a farm 
in Du Page County, 111., where the family 
lived till 1857, when Mr. Edward Lambe 
bought the mill in company with Mr. Victor 



Fredenhagen, and the family moved to War- 
renville, where Mrs. Lambe died a few years 
later. In 1862, Mr. Lambe sold one-half his 
interest in the mill and moved to a farm in 
Downer's Grove, where he farmed for eleven 
years, during which time his father died. In 
1873, he returned and bought Mr. Freden- 
hagen' s one-fourth interest in the mill, giv- 
ing him then one-half interest, and, a few 
years later, he became the sole proprietor. 
August 11, 1879, the mill was destroyed by 
fire, and was rebuilt, on a more extensive 
plan and improved pattern. In 1855, he 
married Miss Sofa Fredenhagen, a native of 
Germany; they have four children — Williain 
Victor, Paul Edward, Mary L. and Carrie 
A. Both the sons are engaged in the mill. 

J. E. LEHMAN, farmer, P. O. Batavia, is 
a native of Lee County, 111. ; he was born in 
the year 1847, and is the second of three chil- 
dren born to Samuel and Mrs.Foutz Lehman. 
Our subject was raised on the farm in Lee 
County, 111. , until he was ten years of age, 
when the family moved to Warrenville, 111., 
where our subject lived until 1871, when he 
came to his present place, and has lived here 
since. In 1S73, he married Miss Emma 
Pratt, a native of Du Page County, 111. By 
the marriage there are three children — Wil- 
ton, Delia and Luke. He owns 130 acres lo- 
cated two and a half miles southwest of Tur- 
ner. 

JAMES W. McKEE, farmer, P. O. War- 
renville, is a native of Du Page County, 111. ; 
he was born in the year 18-10, and is the sec- 
ond of three children born to David McKee 
and his second wife, Sarah Ward. David 
McKee (deceased) was a native of Loudoun 
County, Va. ; he was born December 2, 1800; 
his parents were John F. and Jane Marple 
McKee, of Scotland; they settled in Virginia, 
from which State they went to Pennsylvania, 
and. in 1813, they went to Cincinnati, Ohio, 



WINFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



185 



where David learned the trade of blacksinith- 
ing. In 1821, he made a trip to New Or- 
leans, on the City of Washington, and, in 
1822, he was appointed to do blacksmithing 
for the Indians at Chicago, where he worked 
for eight years; he then carried mail for a 
year between Chicago and Fort Wayne; served 
with Capt. Bordman in the Black Hawk war, 
and then hired to the Government again. In 
1836, he located on a farm at the forks of the 
Du Page River, and kept a blacksmith shop 
there for a number of years; from there he 
moved on a farm in Winfield Township, Du 
Page County, where he lived to within a few 
years of his death, which occurred near Au- 
rora, 111., April 8, 1881. Mr. McKee was 
twice married — first, to Miss Wealthy Scott, 
a sister of Willard Scott, Esq., of Naper- 
ville. 111. : two children were born — Stephen 
and Josephus; the latter died when he was 
young. Stephen served four years in the 
army during the rebellion, after which he re- 
moved to Nebraska, where he died. The 
second wife was Miss Sarah W'ard, a native 
of New York; they had three children — Mrs. 
Wealthy Bicknell, of Cedar Springs, Mich. ; 
Miss Carrie A. Fisher, of St. Louis, Mo. , and 
James W. McKee, living here on the old 
homestead, where he was born. November 
28, 1860, he married Miss Frances L. Bird, 
of Winnebago County, 111. 

WILLIAM A. MACAULEY, farmer, P 
O. Turner, is a native of St. Lawrence Coun- 
ty. N. Y. ; he was born September 21, 1823, 
and is the second of ten children born to 
George and Mary Miller Macauley; they were 
natives of Ireland and New York City, she 
being of Scotch descent. He came to America 
when a young man; he had been educated as 
a Presbyterian minister; his father was a 
successful merchant of Dublin, and placed 
his son in circumstances that he was not re- 
quired to follow the ministry, and did not. 



George Macauley married in New York City, 
and came to Illinois in the summer of 1841, 
and occupied a claim he had bought of Mr. 
Town, which was located in what is now 
Winfield Township, Du Page County, and 
lived on the place until his death. Mrs. 
Macauley died about two years previous to 
her husband. Our subject was raised on the 
farm; he received a common -school educa- 
tion. In 1841, he and his brother Walter M. 
drove a team to the present place. In 1864, 
he married Miss Anna Whitmer, a native of 
Niagara County, N. Y. , where she lived when 
married, she being engaged as a school 
teacher. They have three children — Will- 
iam L. , David W. and Mary F. In 1849. Mr. 
Macauley went to California overland with 
cattle, being seven months on the trip; he 
lived there three years; he followed mining 
one year, and conducted a grocery and 
butcher shop for about two years; he then 
returned and kept a general store in Elgin 
for about seven years, when he came to the 
old homestead, and. except three years' resi- 
dence in Chicago, has lived here since. 

M. W. MURRAY, farmer, P. O. Winfield, 
is a native of Ireland; he was born in the 
year 1823, and is the eldest of four children 
born to John and Mary Brenan Murray; he 
was of Scotch descent and born in Ireland; 
he married in his native land and came to 
Canada soon after, where he lived for six or 
eight years, and then came to the Fnited 
States and settled in Connecticut, and. in 
1835, he came We9t by the lakes and bought 
a place on the lake short', at Grosse Point, 
and, the next fall, wont to Chicago, where 
he lived until 1837, and then made a claim 
in what is now Winfield Township, Du Page 
County. 111., and occupied and improved the 
place where he lived until his death. Mrs. 
Murray lived on the old homestead until her 
death. Our subject lived with his parents 



186 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



until he was about nineteen years of age; he 
then began for himself, working by the month 
for a season, and then rented a place, which 
he farmed a year, and, on becoming of age, 
he was elected Constable of Wayne Township 
to fill a vacancy, and he served in all for 
seven years. During the last four years, he 
also served as Deputy Sheriff; he then moved 
on a place which his father deeded to him, 
and farmed the same since. In January, 
1845, he married Miss Martha Ann Billings, 
a native of Indiana, and came to Du Page 
County, 111., with her parents, who were early 
pioneers. She died May 1, 1872. By the 
marriage there were nine children, of whom 
seveu are living. September 29, 1875, he 
married Mrs. Ketchum, formerly Miss Lu- 
cinda C. Scott, a native of Pennsylvania; she 
came to Du Page County in 1856. By the 
present marriage, there have been two chil- 
dren, both of whom have died. He iB a Re- 
publican in his politics. 

D. R. MARTIN, farmer, P. O. Turner, is 
a native of Erie County, N. Y. ; he was born 
in the year 1843, and is the second of eight 
children born to Christian F. and Sarah 
Rhodes Martin; they came to Kane County, 
111., in 1849, and to Du Page County in 
1805; they now live near Naperville. Our 
subject was- raised on the farm; he received 
a common-school education. When he was 
about twenty-two years of age, he began 
farming the home farm on the shares, and, in 
1871, he married Miss Lucinda Pratt, & na- 
tive of Du Page County, 111. After the mar- 
riage, they came to the present place, which 
he rented a few years and then bought the 
same, it being the old David Martin home- 
stead, and has lived here since. By the mar- 
riage there are four children — Jessie, Olive, 
Albert and Cora. Mr. Martin is Republican 
in politics; he has served as Assessor and 
school officer. He owns 122 acres, located 



one and three-fourths miles west of Tur- 
ner. 

JONATHAN R. MATHER, farmer, P. O. 
Warrenville, is a native of Du Page County, 
111. ; he was born in the year 1849, and is the 
seventh of ten children born to Israel and 
his second wife, Hannah Royce Mather; they 
were natives of Essex County, N. Y. Our 
subject was raised on the farm; he received 
a common-school education. At the age of 
sixteen, he began doing for himself, working 
by the month, and, after becoming of age, he 
began farming the home farm on shares. In 
1877, he married Miss Nettie L. Ketchum, a 
native of Du Page County, 111.; they had two 
children, one living — Israel. Since his mar- 
riage', Mr. Mather has farmed the home farm. 

HENRY H. MARTIN, farmer, P. O. Tur- 
ner, is a native of Erie County, N. Y. ; he 
was born in the year 184S, and is the fifth of 
nine children born to Christian F. and Sarah 
Rhodes Martin. Henry H. Martin was raised 
on his father's farm, and received a common- 
school education; he lived at home until he 
was twenty- four years of age; had an interest 
or share in the product of the home farm, 
since he was sixteen or seventeen years of 
age. In 1872, he married Miss Clara A. 
Hodges, a native of Pennsylvania; she came 
to Du Page County, 111., with her parents, 
who settled on a farm in Winfield Township. 
After the marriage, they settled on the pres- 
ent place, which ho bought of his father, and 
has lived here since. He owns eighty-six and 
one-half acres located one mile west of Turner. 
By the marriage there have been three chil- 
dren, two of whom are living — Elmer and 
George. Mr. Martin is a Republican. He is 
at present Highway Commissioner. 

DANIEL W. MARTIN, farmer, P. O. 
Turner; is a native of Kane County, 111.; he 
was born in the year 1851, and is the fifth of 
eight children born to Christian F. and 



WINFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



18? 



Sarah Rhodes Martin. Mr. Martin was raised 
on the farm, and received a common school 
education. In 1865, the family moved to 
Du Page County, 111., and, in 1872, he began 
fanning his father's place on the shares, and, 
in 1874, he married Miss Jennie Pratt, a na- 
tive of Wayne Township, Du Page County, 
111, and daughter of Obadi ah Pratt, one of 
the pioneers of Wayne Township. After the 
marriage, he rented the farm, and, in the 
spring of 1881, he bought the place, his par- 
ents then retiring to Naperville, where they 
now live. Mr. Martin is a Republican. He 
owns 117 acres, located one mile south of 
Turner. In addition to farmiug, Mr. Martin 
has conducted a thresher for the past ten years. 
RUSSEL MANVILLE, farmer, P. O. 
Turner, is a native of Whitehall, Washing- 
ton Co., N. Y. ; he was born June 5, 1818; 
he was raised on the farm and received a 
common -school education; his father died 
when he was about fourteen years of age; he 
lived on the home farm with his mother till 
he was twenty years of age; he then decided 
to go West, and, accordingly, took the canal 
to Buffalo, thence by boat to Detroit, and 
railroad to Ypsilanti, and team and stage to 
St. Joe and lake to Chicago; thence to War- 
renville, where, the next spring, he rented a 
farm and farmed one season, after which he 
worked during summers and taught school in 
Marshall and Tazewell Counties, and, about 
1845, he came to his present place, and has 
lived here since. In 1848, he visited Ver- 
mont, and married Miss Julia C. Smith, a 
native of that State. By the marriage there 
are four children — Lotan S., United States 
mail agent; Mrs. Jane E. Smith, of Wayne 
Township; E. H., of Oak Park; Martha J., 
at home. He is a Republican in politics, and 
has served as Collector one year. He owns 
175 acres, located four and one-half miles 
southwest of Turner. 



EDWARD P. MACK, farmer, P. O. War- 
renville; is a native of Susquehanna Coun- 
ty, Penn. ; he was born in the year 1815, and 
was raised on the farm and received but a 
very limited common-school education. At 
the age of twenty, he went to Rockingham, 
VI, and learned the clothier and cloth-dress- 
ing business, working about five years. He 
then returned home and boated on the Schuyl- 
kill Canal one season, and, in 1841, he came 
West and sold dry goods and groceries from 
a wagon in Wisconsin and Illinois. He then 
engaged in breaking prairie in Wisconsin, 
which business he followed for two seasons. 
He then bought his present place and occu- 
pied the same. He owns 240 acres, located 
two and one-half miles north of Warrenville. 
In 1842, he married Miss Maria Royce, a 
native of Essex County, N. Y. ; she came to 
Will County, 111, with her parents; she died 
in July, 1882; there have been ten children, 
of whom seven are living — Abner, farmer in 
Iowa; Edward, farmer in Nebraska; Charles, 
employed on the Chicago & North-Western 
Railway; Orland, farmer in Will County, 111. ; 
Adaline, at home; Elmer, at home, and Mil- 
ton, at school, Aurora. Mr. Mack is a Re- 
publican. 

J. C. NELTNOR, general store and nurs- 
ery, Turner, is a native of Pennsylvania; 
he was born in the city of Erie, in the year 
1841, and is the eldest of six children born 
to Francis X. and Mary A. Runser Neltnor; 
they were natives of Baden, Germany; they 
came to America when young; they married 
in Pennsylvania. He was a merchant tailor, 
and came to Du Page County, 111., in 1N47, 
and conducted his business in Bloomingdale 
until his death, in 1881, Mrs. Neltnor is 
living in the old home at Bloomingdale. Our 
subject lived with his parents until he became 
of age. When about ten years of age, he 
engaged as clerk in a general store in Bloom- 



188 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



ingclale, and clerked there until 1861, when 
he became a j>artner with Dr. Sedgwick in a 
general store, and continued thereuntil 1S64, 
when he sold out and came to Turner and en- 
gaged in his present business. In 1808, his 
place was destroyed by fire, and he afterward 
built his present place. In 1870, he estab- 
lished, in company with Mr. G. W. Rich- 
mond, the Grove Place Nurseries, and, in 
1874, he became the sole proprietor and has 
conducted the business since. In 1882, he 
established Neltnor's Fruit and Flower Grow- 
er, a horticultural magazine, published quar- 
terly. He is a Democrat in politics and has 
served as Secretary of the County Committee 
for a number of years. In 1864, he married 
Miss Mary E. Kinney, a native of Du Page 
County, 111. They have six children. 

CAPT. G. N. ROUND Y, farmer, P. O. 
Turner, is a native of Spafi'ord, Onondaga 
County, N. Y. ; he was born December 4, 
1811; he was raised on his father's farm and 
received a common-school education; on be- 
coming of age, he began on his own account, 
working by the month; he also spent two 
years in Canada, collecting for a party doing 
business there, and, in 1836, November 12, 
he drove the first car over the Erie & Kala- 
mazoo Railroad, from Toledo to Adrian, now 
part of Southern Michigan. November 1, 
1837, he came to Illinois and bought a claim 
in what is now Wayne Township, Du Page 
County, and improved the place, and, in the 
fall of 1843, he sold out and came to Win- 
field Township, and has farmed in the town- 
ship ever since. He owns 120 acres, located 
one mile east of Turner. He married Miss 
Maria L. Kimball, a native of Vermont; she 
came to Illinois with her parents. By the 
marriage, there have been twelve children, 
of whom seven are living. He is Republi- 
can in his politics; he has served as Assessor 
of Winfield Township some seven or eight 



years, and has held the office of Supervisor. 
During the war, he was appointed County 
Marshal; he has also served as Road Com- 
missioner for two terms, and he was Captain 
of the old Winfield Cavalry Company. 

DAVID ROOT, farmer, P. O. Batavia. is 
a native of Piermont, near Haverhill, N. H. ; 
he was born November 8, 1815; his parents, 
Ephraim and Vashti Burd Root, were natives 
of New Hampshire and Vermont. He was a 
farmer, and moved to Genesee County, N. 
Y, in 1822. Mrs. Root died there in 1829, 
and Mr. Root later moved to Michigan, and 
thence to Illinois, and finally died in Indiana, 
where he lived with a son. Our subject was 
brought up at home until his mother died; 
he then went to live with an uncle, for whom 
he worked on the farm, receiving §7 per 
month, and, after two years, he began teach- 
ing at the age of sixteen, having a school of 
fifty scholars and receiving $12 per month, 
for a four-months' term. He then went to 
Kentucky, where he had brothers living, and 
taught school at Newport and in Fayette and 
Harrison Counties, for seven years. When 
Mr. Root first went to Kentucky, he made a 
trip horseback to Michigan; this was about 
the year 1832, and, in 1839, he came horse- 
back to Illinois, and bought a claim to his 
present place, which he occupied, and has 
lived here since, except about a year he lived 
in Indiana. In 1841, he married Miss Syl- 
van ia Graves, a native of New York; she 
came to Du Page County with her parents; 
she died September 22, 1847; they had three 
children. In 1847, he married Miss Marietta 
Hallenbeck, a native of Erie County, N. Y.; 
she came to Du Page County, 111., with her 
parents, in 1843; they had seven children. 
He is Republican, and a member of the Baptist 
Church for the past forty years; also Mrs. Root 
is a member of the Baptist Church. He owns 
190 acres, located three miles east of Batavia. 



WINFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



189 



W. T. REED, Reed & Stark, general store, 
Turner; is a native of Du Page County, 111.; 
he was born on the farm in Wayne Township, 
in the year 1843, and is the third of seven chil- 
dren born to Geo. W. and Juda A. Ellenwood 
Reed, of Wayne Township. Our subject was 
raised on the farm and received a common- 
school education. After he became of age, he 
began farming on the shares, which he contin- 
ued until 1876, when he removed to Turner and 
engaged in partnership with Mr. Voll in the 
general store business, and, about one and a 
half years later, Mr. Voll sold his interest to 
Mr. Stark, and they have conducted it since. 
In 1864, he enlisted in the One Hundred and 
Forty- first Regiment Illinois Infantry, and was 
in the service about five months. In 1878, 
he married Miss Maggie Campbell, a native 
of Philadelphia; she came to DuPage Coun- 
ty, 111., with her parents. By the marriage 
there is one child — Jennie Irene. He is Re- 
publican in politics, and has served as Police 
Magistrate for two years. 

C. K. SANDERS, commercial traveler, 
Turner, is a native of Cattaraugus County, N. 
Y. ; he was born in the year 1836, and is the 
eldest of four children, born to James and 
Betsy Irish Sanders; they were natives of 
Vermont and New York; they married in 
New York, and came West in 1841, and 
rented a farm in Wayne Township, Du Page 
County, 111., and, two years later, bought a 
piece of land and began building a house on 
the place, but died before it was completed, 
and Mrs. Sanders sold the place and soon 
after married Mr. O. Higgins, and lived in 
Wayne Township until about 1881, when 
they moved to Turner, where they now live. 
Our subject lived at home until he was about 
eighteen; he received a common-school edu- 
cation; he spent one year in the East, and, 
while there, taught writing, and returning 
home in the spring, clerked in a store in 



Wayne during the summers and teaching 
writing in the winters. He then accepted 
the position of Deputy Circuit Clerk, under 
Mr. Whitney, and held the position about 
one year, when he enlisted in the Fifty-fifth 
Regiment Illinois Infantry, Company, C, and 
was appointed Quartermaster Sergeant, and 
served fifteen months, when he was dis- 
charged, after which he became a citizen em- 
ploye in the Quartermaster's department, and 
held the position until the close of the war, 
when he returned home to Wayne Township, 
and clerked in a general store for about one 
and one-half years, at Lincoln, 111. He then 
engaged in the business at that place on his 
own account, which he conducted until the 
fall of 1869; he then became a salesman in 
the office of Franklin McVeagh & Co., of Chi- 
cago, and, four years later, began traveling 
on the road for the same house, with whom 
he has remained since. In 1865, he married 
Miss Elvira Currier, a native of Du Page 
County, 111. ; she died in 1 876. By the mar- 
riage there was one child — Bertha D. In 
1878, he married Mrs. Almeda E. Townsend, 
a native of Utica, N. Y. There are no children. 
EDGAR STEPHENS, of Wiant & Stephens, 
general store, Turner; is a native of Morris 
County, N. J.; he was born in the year 1845. 
In 1847, the family moved West to Illinois, 
and located at Geneva, where they lived for 
seven years, then moved on a farm, two miles 
south of Batavia. Our subject lived at home 
until 1S61, when he enlisted in the Forty- 
second Regiment Illinois Infantry, Company 
I, and served three years; he was in the bat- 
tles of Stone River, Chickamauga, Mission 
Ridge; at the latter place was wounded 
and joined his regiment about five months 
later, and took part in the Atlanta campaign 
— battles of Jonesboro and Kenesaw Moun- 
tain; from the army he came home and en- 
gaged as fireman on the North- Western Rail- 



190 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



way for two years; he then became engineer 
and continued with the company nine years 
longer. He then became a partner in the 
present business. He is Republican in poli- 
tics, and has held the office of Trustee of Tur- 
ner and Township Treasurer. In 1869, he 
married Miss Alice Wiant, daughter of Joel 
Wiant, Esq., of Turner. By the marriage, 
there have been four children, one of whom 
is living, viz., Lloyd Stephens. 

JOSEPH W. SMITH, Postmaster, Tur- 
ner, is a native of Cazenovia, Madison Co., 
N. Y. ; he was born in the year 1812. In 
1819, the family moved to Gates, Monroe 
County, N. Y., where his father died; he 
then went back to Cazenovia, and lived with 
his uncle until he was about sixteen years of 
age, during which time he worked at black- 
smithing; he then went to Greece, Monroe Co. , 
N. Y., where his mother lived. February 28, 
1829, he enlisted in the United States Army, 
and was in the service for three years; he 
then learned the cooper's trade and followed 
the business in Monroe County and in the 
State of Michigan for eighteen years, where 
he engaged first as trackman and then as fire- 
man on the Michigan Central Railroad, and 
later, he engaged with the New Albany & Sa- 
lem Railroad, having charge of their black- 
smith shops. In 1857, he came to Turner 
and engaged as blacksmith for the old Galena 
Railroad. During the war, he enlisted in 
the One Hundred and Forty-first Illinois Vol- 
unteer Infantry, and served about five months, 
and, on his return, he resumed his place with 
the railroad company. In 1873, he was com- 
missioned Postmaster of Turner, and has held 
the position since. October 20, 1833, he 
married Miss Eliza Ann, daughter of Dr. 
Moses Lewis, of Greece, N. Y. ; they had five 
children, three of whom are living — two sons 
and one daughter; the latter married Mr. D. 
C. Stanley, of Downer's Grove. 



C. P. STARK, of Reed & Stark, general 
store, Turner, is a native of Du Page Coun- 
ty, 111. ; he was born on the farm in the year 
1855, and is the second of nine children born 
to Martin and Margaret (Voll) Stark; they 
were natives of Germany; she came to Amer- 
ica with her parents, and he came to America 
in 1847, and settled in Du Page County, 111. 
Our subject lived at home until he was about 
fifteen years of age, then engaged as a clerk 
in a general store at Turner, and continued 
clerking at Turner and Chicago for seven 
years (one year in Chicago), and, in 1877, he 
purchased Mr. Voll's interest in the business 
and formed the firm of Reed & Stark. In 
1881, he married Miss Ida M. Reed, a native 
of Du Page County, 111., daughter of George 
W. Reed, of Wayne Township. Mr. Stark 
is Democratic in politics, and has served as 
Town Clerk three terms and Village Clerk 
four or five years. 

CHRISTIAN D. SMAIL, farmer, P. O. 
Winfield, is a native of Mecklenburg, Ger- 
many; he was born in the year 1812; he was 
raised a farmer and shepherd, and, in 1819, 
he married Miss Mary Witt, a native of 
Mecklenburg, and the same year came to 
America, and lived for three years in Chi- 
cago, and then came to De Plaines, where he 
lived about one and one-half years, and, in 
1853, he came to Du Page County and rented 
a farm in Winfield Township. In 1858, he 
bought and occupied his present place. 
There were two children — one liv ng — Caro- 
line; she married, January 15, 1874, Mr. 
Christian Fessler, a native of Baden, Ger- 
many; he was born October 4, 1841; he was 
raised a farmer, and received a common- 
school education, and served as a teamster in 
the French and German war; he came to 
America in 1871, and worked at farming in 
Du Page County. By the marriage there are 
two children — Flora and George. Mr. and 



WINFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



191 



Mrs. Fessler live on the old homestead with 
Mr. Smail. He owns forty acres, located two 
and a half miles south of Winheld. 

JOHN WEST, drags and general store, 
Turner, is a native of England; he was born 
in the year 1829. In 1830, his parents moved 
to America, and located in Oneida County, 
N. Y., where they engaged in the man- 
ufacture of woolens, which business they 
and their ancestors carried on in England for 
generations. Our subject was raised in 
Oneida County, and received his education 
at the Whitesboro Academy. When about 
eighteen, he began as book-keeper in a gen- 
eral store, and, in 1850, he visited one year in 
England; in 1852, he engaged in that busi- 
ness on his own account; in 1855, he went to 
California via Panama and lived there about 
fifteen months, being engaged in mining; he 
then returned East and soon after took charge 
of a general store at Blackberry, 111., and, in 
the spring of 1857, he located at Turner and 
opened a general store, and has conducted 
the business ever since, he being the oldest 
merchant in the town. In 1852, he married 
Miss Elizabeth Allison, a native of Leeds, 
England; she came to America with her par- 
ents. By the marriage there have been four 
children, three of whom are living. He was 
formerly a Whig, and, later, a Republican; 
from 1860 to 1869, he was Postmaster of 
Turner; he has also served as Town Clerk, in 
all about fifteen years. In 1848, Mr. West 
and his father subscribed for twenty shares in 
the old Galena & Chicago Railroad, and that 
s-J.OOO has now increased to $20,000, besides 
the dividends, and has remained in the fam- 
ily. The children are as follows: John A. 
West, musician and organist in the Church 
of the Ascension, Chicago ; Mrs. J. T. 
Hosford, and Annie West, Utica, N. Y. 

JOEL WIANT, retired, Turner Junction. 
The subject of this sketch, whose portrait ap- 



pears in this work, is a native of Luzerne 
County, Penn. ; he was born December 10, 
1812, and was raised on the farm; his educa- 
tion was obtained in the common schools of his 
day; he lived at home until he became of age, 
and then went to the vicinity of Mauch Chunk, 
where he was principally engaged as a clerk 
in a hotel until 1837, when, with a Benjamin 
Fuller and family, he came West by team, 
via Chicago, and stopped at Spencer's Cross- 
ing, owing to the roads. He and Mr. Fuller 
took horses and prospected, visiting Rockford 
and Dixon, returning, intending to go to 
Dixon, but, owing to the roads, they stopped 
in Wayne Township, where they bought 
claims. Mr. Wiant lived with Mr. Fuller 
about one and one-half years; he then went 
East and married Miss Rhoda Wolever, a na- 
tive of Sunbury, Penn.; after their marriage, 
they occupied their place in Wayne, to which 
piece after piece of land was added, until fin- 
ally it contained over 400 acres Mrs. Wiant 
died June 6, 1851; they had four children, 
all of whom are living to-day. October 17, 
1852, he married Miss Dorcas Wolever, a 
twin sister of the first wife. By this mar- 
riage one child has been born, which died 
September 22, 1865. In 1858, he moved to 
the Junction, trading a part of his farm for a 
store property and grounds. He conducted the 
store until 1862, when he traded his business 
for a farm near W'heaton and a village prop 
erty in that village, where he moved, and, in 
1865, he returned to Turner and opened up 
in the old store again, firm, J. Wiant & Sons, 
and was connectod with the business about 
foul 1 years, since which time his sons have 
conducted the business. He then built his 
present elegant brick house, where he has lived 
retired since. In politics, Mr. W T iant was 
formerly a Whig, but, since the organization 
of the Republican party, has voted that ticket. 
While in Wayne, he served as Assessor, Col- 



192 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



lector and Highway Commissioner. In 1869, 
he was appointed by the Board of Supervisors 
County Treasurer, which office he held about 
two years. 

A. H. WIANT, United States Gauger, 
Turner, is a native of Wayne Township, Du 
Page County, 111.; he was born in the year 
1841, and is the oldest of five children born to 
Joel and Rhoda Wolever Wiant who are spoken 
of elsewhere in this work. Our subject was 
raised on his father's farm, and, in addition to 
the common schools, he attended the Wheaton 
College a short period. At the age of seven- 
teen, the family moved to Turner, and, in 
1862, they moved to Wheaton, where he en- 
listed in Company B, One Hundred and Fifth 
Regiment Illinois Infantry, and was in the 
service nearly three years; during the first 
year and a half, he acted as Commissary for 
the company. He was with his regiment in 
the battles of Resaca, Cassville, the Atlanta 
campaign, Kenesaw Mountain and Peach Tree 
Creek, the march to the sea, Averysboro and 
Bentonville, and finally, at the review in 
Washington, D. C. He served every day with 
the command, never being ill or injured in 
any way; from the army he came to Turner, 
111., and became a partner in the firm of Wi- 
ant & Sons' general store, and, a few years 
later, the firm became Wiant Bros., Mr. Wi- 
ant continuing in the business until 1876; he 
then sold out and engaged as a traveling 
salesman for Franklin McVeagh& Co., of Chi- 
cago, and, the same year, he was appointed 
United States Gauger and has held the office 
since. In 1870, he married Miss Ella Haffey, 
a native of Turner, 111. By the marriage 
there is one child, viz., Lester Albert. 

THOMAS WIANT, of Wiant & Stephens, 
general merchandise, Turner, is a native of 
Du Page County, 111. ; he was born on his 
father's farm in Wayne Township, December 
24, 1844, and is the second of four children 



born to Joel and Rhoda Wolever Wiant, who 
are spoken of elsewhere in this work. Mr. 
Wiant was raised on the farm until fourteen 
years of age, when the family moved to Tur- 
ner. He received, in addition to the common 
schools, two terms at Wheaton College; he 
assisted his father in the store, and, in 1865, 
became a partner with his father and brother, 
and has been identified with the store ever 
since. October, 1877, he married Miss Mary 
Moore, a native of Canada; she came to Tur- 
ner, 111., with her parents. By the marriage 
there are two children — Edith and Clare. 

HENRY S. WILLIAMS, farmer, P. O. 
Warrenville, is a native of Jefferson County, 
N. Y. ; he was born in the year 1820; his 
parents, William and Mary Sterling Williams, 
were natives of Connecticut and New York. 
Mary Sterling was a daughter of Judge Ster- 
ling, who was the first Judge of Herkimer 
County, N. Y. William Williams was a 
farmer; he went to New York when a young 
man and married there. In 1834, he came 
West afoot, and made a large claim near 
Warrenville, 111. ; he also made a timber 
claim in the Big Woods, where he put up a 
log house, in 1836; he was joined by a daugh- 
ter and two sons, and, in the following year, 
built the house on the prairie claim, one mile 
west of Warrenville. In 1838, his wife and 
several children came. Mr. Williams was a 
militia man, and took part in the battle of 
Sackett's Harbor. He was very poor when 
ho came West, and borrowed $43 of Dr. Max- 
well, of the United States Army, at Fort Dear- 
born. He made a claim of 1,600 acres when 
he first came, but it was jumped down to 320, 
upon which he and his wife lived until their 
death. Henry S. Williams was raised a 
farmer, and had but limited opportunities 
in the schools of his day. In 1836, he came 
West with his brother aud sister, and, the 
next year, assisted in building his present 



WINFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



193 



residence; he worked on the farm which 
finally became his after his parents' death. 
In 1855, he married Miss Sarah Jane Welty, 
a native of Maryland; they have no children, 
but one adopted daughter — Florence Will- 
iams. 

JACOB WURTZ, invalid, Turner, is a 
native of Baden, Germany; he was born in 
the year 1823 ; he was raised on the farm and 
received a common-school education; his 
father was a weaver, and he learned the same 
business, and worked at it and farming. In 
1 8 18-49, when the Revolution took place, he 
took up arms against the Prince, and, in 
1849, he and his brother Christian came to 
America and worked in New York State by 
the day for about two years, when their par- 
ents came to America and they all came 
West and settled in Winfield Township, Du 
Page County, 111., where the parents died. 
Mr. Jacob Wurtz has lived here since; for 
the past eight years he has been afflicted with 
paralysis, and has been confined most of the 
time. In 1849, he married Miss Saloma 
Schocb, a native of Baden, Germany; she 
came over to America at the same time he 
did. There are four children — Mrs. Saloma 
Asmus, farming in Erie County, N. Y. ; 
Christian, farming in Erie County, N. Y. ; 
Mrs. Louisa, wife of Rev. Mr. Wolf, of Cook 
County, 111., and Michael, managing the 
home farm, which contains 102 acres, located 
two and a half miles, southwest of Turner. 

MICHAEL WURTZ, farmer, P. O.Turner, 
is a native of Baden, Germany; he was born 
in the year 1825; he was raised a farmer and 
received a common-school education; when 
about fifteen years of age, he began working 
at weaving, which he followed for about 
three years; he also worked at washing gold 
in the Rhine and also at fishing. In 1851, 
he and his parents came to the United States 
of America, and settled on the present place, 



where the parents died, and the son has lived 
here since. In 1S53, he inan - ied Miss Saloma 
Kress, a native of Baden, Germany; she came 
to the United States of America with Mr. 
Wurtz. There have been five children, three 
of whom are living — Maiy B. , Susan K. and 
Annie E. Mr. Wurtz was a Revolutionary 
soldier in the rebellion in Baden against the 
Prince. He is Republican. He owns 230 
acres in this county, besides some timber land 
in Kane County. The homestead is located 
three miles southwest of Turner. 

CHRISTIAN WURTZ, farmer, P. O. Tur- 
ner, is a native of Baden, Germany; he was 
born in the year 1828, and came to America 
in 1849 with his brother; they worked for 
two years in Erie County, N. Y. , and then 
wrote to their parents, Michael and Suzannah 
C. Pfeifer Wurtz; they came and bought a 
farm in Winfield Township, Du Page County, 
111., where they lived until their death. Our 
subject married, in 1857, Miss Elizabeth 
Bachman; she was born in Wurtemberg, Ger- 
many, and came to America with her brother 
After the marriage, they lived on the old home 
farm; he then bought and moved to a place 
on the Geneva Railroad, and. later, came to 
his present place. There have been nine 
children, seven living — B. Franklin, Michael 
E., Suzannah C, George W., Christian J., 
Carrie D. and Louisa S. E. He is Republi- 
can. Mr. Wurtz owns about 356 acres; his 
residence is located two and one-half miles 
northwest of Turner. He is a member of the 
Evangelical Church since childhood, and has 
taken an active interest in its affairs. 

COL. J. M. WARREN, retired, Warren- 
ville, is a native of Fredonia, N. Y. ; he was 
born in the year 1810, and is the third of 
eight children born to Daniel and Nancy 
Morton Warren; they were natives of Worces- 
ter County, Mass. ; they married in Madison 
County, X. Y., in 1803, and moved to Chautau- 



194 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



qua County soon after. He conducted a grist 
and saw mill, and also carried on a general 
store, and, at one time, a distillery. In 1833, 
they came West by teams, the Colonel and 
two sisters coming in the spring, and made 
a claim to about 160 acres, where Warrenvi lie 
now stands. His father came out the same 
spring, and bought a claim on the river north 
of Naperville, where he lived several years, 
when they came here and lived with their 
son, where they died, he July 6, 1866, and 
she February 4, 1873, they living to the age 
of eighty-six and eighty-eight respectively. 
Col. Warren farmed his claim, upon which 
he built the first house in the village of War- 
renville, which was laid out on the claim 
about 1836; he also built and conducted, in 
company with Philo Carpenter, of Chicago, 
a saw-mill. He also conducted a general 
store in Warrenville for a number of years. 
He was the first Postmaster of the place, and 
has held the office in all some twenty-five 
years. He was formerly a Democrat in poli- 
tics, his first vote being for Jackson, and has 
been Republican since the second administra- 
tion of Lincoln. In 1844, he was elected to 
the Legislature from the Will District, rep- 
resenting Du Page, Will, Kankakee and 
Iroquois Counties, and, later, was elected to 
fill a vacancy. The Colonel was raised in 
the village of Fredonia until he was fourteen 
years of age; he received a common-school 
course of study; after he became old enough, 
he assisted in his father's business, which, 
at the time, was principally confined to the 
distillery, where he worked until he came 
West. 

DAVID WARD, farmer, P. 0. Turner, is 
a native of Rothwell, Yorkshire, England; he 
was born in the year 1826; his father was a 
coal miner, and David was put in the mine 
at nine years of age, and continued at work 
in the mines for about thirteen years, he re- I 



ceiving his education by attending night 
schools. In 1S46, he married Miss Ann Bar- 
ber, a native of Rothwell, Yorkshire, Eng. 
In 1849, they came to America, and located 
on a farm near Winfield, where they farmed 
for eighteen years; they then sold out and 
came to his present place, located one mile 
east of Turner, where he has lived since. By 
the marriage there are nine children, of 
whom eight are living- — Joseph A. Ward, liv- 
ing in Sycamore, 111. ; Mrs. Annie Gladding, 
of Fulton County, 111. ; William K. Ward, of 
Turner, 111.; Mrs. Mary Roundy, of Turner, 
111.; John L., George Alfred, Ella May and 
Charles D., at home. Mr. Ward is Republi- 
can in his politics. 

SANFORD WATSON, farmer, P. O. Ba- 
tavia, is a native of Cortland County, N. 
Y. ; he was born in the year 1839, and is the 
fourth of eight children born to Eliphalet S. 
and Lois Kendall Watson; they were natives 
of New York and Massachusetts; he was a 
carpenter and also farmed. In 1844. they 
cpme West and settled in Winfield Township, 
Du Page County, 111., where Mrs. Watson 
died; he afterward married Miss Morina 
Bartholomew, and lived on the old homestead 
until 1882, when they moved to Geneva, where 
they now live. Our subject was raised on the 
farm ; he received a common-school education ; 
he also taught school a number of terms. On 
becoming of age, he began working as a car- 
penter with his brother. In 1862, he married 
Miss Jane Cooper, a native of Ohio; she came 
to Du Page County, 111,, with her parents. 
In the fall of 1862, he enlisted in the One 
Hundred and Fifth Regiment Illinois Infant- 
ry, and some three months later, he was trans- 
ferred to the Pioneer Corps, and served for 
three years. From the army he returned 
home and began farming, also doing carpen- 
ter work. They have four children — Irving 
S., attending Grinned College, Iowa; Charles 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 



195 



S., Mary E. and Frank S., at home. He is 
Republican; he owns 118 acres located two 
miles east of Batavia. 

REV. JOHN WIEDERHOLD, Winiield, 
is a native of "Westphalia, Prussia; he was 
born in the year 1840; he was born on his 
father's farm, and lived there until he was 
twelve years of age, when he began to pre- 
pare for-the ministry, and studied at Pader- 



born and Fulder, except a two years' vacation, 
owing to sickness, until 1864, he came to 
America, and studied for four years at the St. 
Mary's Seminary, of Chicago, and then fin- 
ished his studies in Milwaukee, where he was 
ordained by Bishop Henne and was appoint- 
ed to his present parish, where he has pre- 
sided since. 



WAYNE T 

IRA ALBRO, farmer, Wayne Township, 
was born in Erie County, N. Y., October 31, 
1809, son of John and Martha (Gardner) Al- 
bro. John Albro was a native of Rhode Isl- 
and, to which State his ancestors came from 
Nova Scotia. He was twice married; his 
wife was Betsey Dunham, sister of Solomon 
Dunham, of Du Page County; his second 
wife, Martha Gardiner, bore him seven chil- 
dren, all of whom grew to maturity, none of 
whom, however, came West, save Ira, our sub- 
ject, the eldest of the family. He came to 
Illinois in the spring of 1835 ; worked out by 
the month some time; took a claim of 228 
acres of land in the fall of the same year, 
and has since resided on the place. He has 
devoted his attention to farming since he set- 
tled here; he started on his farm, May, 1866, 
the first cheese factory in this section of the 
country, which he sold after running it seven 
years; his farm now comprises about three 
hundred acres of land. Mr. Albro was mar- 
ried, September 29, 1839, to Betsey Dunham, 
born in Erie County, N. Y., June 24, 1819, 
eldest daughter of Solomon Dunham. Mrs. 
Albro died October 25, 1880, leaving one son, 
Adrian B., born in 1841; she was a woman 
of ^prth and of marked character, and did 
much good in the community. Mr. Albro 
was a Democrat, as was also his father. The 



OVNSHIP. 

latter was in the war of 1812, came West in 
1853, and died February 2, 1861; his wife 
died January 4, 1862. 

ROBERT YOUNG BENJAMIN, farmer, 
P. O. Turner Junction. Of the pioneer repre- 
sentatives of Du Page County, this gentleman 
ranks among the first. At the time of his 
coming, the red man had not taken his final de- 
parture, and was watching with envious 
anxiety the encroachments of the ' ' pale face " 
upon their domain., and the consequent dimi- 
nution of their own numbers. Robert Young 
Benjamin was born in the (then) wilds of the 
Buckeye State July 7, 1808, near Worthington, 
Franklin Co., Ohio. He was the eldest son 
and the third child of his father, Daniel Ben- 
jamin, a native of New York State, son of 
William. Daniel Benjamin was a carpenter 
by trade, and emigrated to Ohio and made 
his settlement north of where Columbus now 
stands, and was one of the early pioneers of 
Franklin County. He married Martha, a 
daughter of Robert Young, who was a native 
of county Tyrone, Ireland. Robert, whose 
name heads this sketch, was named for his 
mother; he was reared to farm labor, and as- 
sisted his father when young in clearing up 
the farm, and thus early in life became accus- 
tomed to the usages and inconveniences that 
are necessarily incident to frontier life. His 



106 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



school advantages, as a matter of course, were 
very meager; the elements of reading, writ- 
ing, etc., were acquired in the log cabins of 
that day ; his principal schooling was such as 
he obtained in the busy school of life — ex- 
perience. February 25, 1826, he married 
Nancy, who was born March 8, 180S, in Hop- 
kins County, Ky. , daughter of John Groff. 
In the spring of 1834, he came West to this 
State, and the 12th of May he made his loca- 
tion where he now resides, and the 15th, three 
days from his arrival, he moved into his 
house, which was the first one built in the 
township. His claim amounted to about four 
hundred acres, which he purchased of the 
Government as soon as it came into market. 
Here he settled, and for well on to half a 
century he has been a constant resident of the 
place, and been identified with the interests 
of the county and township. Of eight chil- 
dren born to him, seven are living, viz., Will- 
iam, Allen, Daniel and Nathan (twins), George, 
Walter and Elizabeth. The above are living, 
but variously scattered. William resides in 
Roseburg, Ore., Register of Land Office there; 
Allen, Walter and Daniel are in Harrison 
County, Iowa; George resides in Montana; 
Elizabeth and Nathan are residents of Wayne 
Township; Elizabeth is the wife of John 
Kline. Mr. Benjamin has now 150 acres of 
land, and is yet engaged in the cultivation 
and management of the same, and has always 
been one of the township's worthy citizens. 
He is not a member of any church or society. 
Politically, he has since his youth been a 
stanch Democrat. 

LUTHER BARTLETT, deceased, was born 
July 21, 1817, in Conway, Franklin Co., 
Mass., of a family of six sons and one daugh- 
ter, he being the fourth son and the fifth 
child that grew to maturity. His father was 
Luther, and his mother's maiden name was 
Annie Nim^, of Massachusetts. Three broth- 



ers named Bartlett came from England at an 
early day in the history of this country, one 
settling in New Hampshire, one in Massachu- 
setts and one elsewhere. To Luther and 
Annie (Nims) Bartlett was born seven chil- 
dren, all of whom lived to maturity. Luther 
Bartlett, father of subject, died on the home- 
stead in Conway, and there our subject was 
raised to maturity. He taught school for 
several years. In the fall of 1842, he came 
to Michigan, and the following summer he 
and his brother Lyman bought a farm in 
Wayne Township of 320 acres, and settled 
upon the same, and the following spring 
I IS 14) they bought of the State enough land 
to make 765 acres in all. Here he remained 
until his death, June 25, 1S82, of Bright's 
disease; he was sick only a few days; he was 
a life-long Democrat; he was Supervisor 
several years. The deceased was a man 
highly respected in the community in which 
he lived; was strictly upright and honest in all 
his dealings with his f ellew-men, and although 
not a member of any church, was extremely lib- 
eral to all denominations, November 8, 18-44, 
he was married to Sophia, daughter of Chester 
and Sophia (Palsifer) Bartlett, he a native of 
Massachusetts, born in 1788, and died in 
1850; she born in 1798. Chester Bartlett 
and wife came West in 1843. 

WILLIAM BLANK, farmer, P. O. Bart- 
lett. Of the wealthy farmers in the township 
there are none that are entitled to more credit 
than William Blank. He was born April 
12, 1823, in Pennsylvania, near the Lehigh 
River, son of William Blank and Sarah Hick- 
man, both of the same State. Our subject 
started out in life upon his own resources. 
He had no school advantages; could just read 
and write his name, but had no knowledge of 
figures whatever. He worked out by the 
month, and got means to enable him to come 
West. Upon his arrival, he had nothing but 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 



190 



his bands, but be labored on; be came West 
in 1845. In 1850, be went tbe overland route 
to California, and while on bis way bad some 
trying experiences; was sick six months, and 
was in danger of his life from the Indians, 
and other difficulties. While he remained in 
California, he was engaged in teaming and 
minincr. He succeeded in saving some 
money, and upon bis return to tbe county he 
settled permanently, and has since remained. 
He is a self-made man, and what he has ac- 
cumulated has been by hard labor, having 
never speculated nor engaged in any com- 
mercial business. He has 181 acres, upon 
which he put all tbe substantial improve- 
ments. July 1, 1847, be married Mrs. Elea- 
nor Blank, born April 12, 1822, in Perry 
County, Penn., daughter of Benjamin Dunkel- 
berge. Mr. Blank has four children — Orlin- 
tliia. Evaline. Lydia A. and Allison. Orlin- 
thia married Albert Ellis; Evaline, wife of 
Dr. Vanderhoof. Mr. Blank's first purchase 
was eighty acres, costing §8 per acre, and 
after added forty more, for which he paid 
$15 per acre. He piu-chased and located 
where he now resides in December, 1866; 
farm cost §40 per acre. 

HENRY F. BARBER, farmer, P. O. 
Wayne, was born in Benson, Rutland Co., 
Vt., July 12, 1804, and is a son of Levi and 
Rebecca (Hinman) Barber, natives of Wor- 
cester. Mass, and parents of nine children — 
six sons and three daughters. Mr. Barber 
remained on the homestead farm until be 
grew to manhood, and in January, 1828. mar- 
ried Huldab L. King, born in 1806, daughter 
of David King. Mr. Barber came to this 
county in the fall of 1852, and purchased a 
farm in Bloomingdale Township, where be 
remained about three years; then moved to 
Cook County, 111. ; lived there until about the 
year 1869, then moved to bis present place 
in Wayne Township. Section 15, where be 



has a fine farm of 211 acres. Mrs. Barber 
died July 4, 1875, leaving three children — 
Caroline E., wife of Josiah Sterns, of Bloom- 
ingdale Township; Mary, wife of I. B. Kin- 
ney, and Henry F., living on the homestead, 
who married Mary Moore, who has borne him 
three children ; Barton H. , May and Howard. 
JOHN CARR, farmer, P. O. Turner Junc- 
tion, whose portrait appears in this work, was 
born in June, 1808, in Ireland, and emigrat- 
ed to Vermont in 1834, where he worked by 
the month at a small salary for one year, when 
he went to Massachusetts, and farmed for 
two years. In 1837, he came to Chicago, and 
subsequently to Batavia, where he engaged 
in a grist mill at $20 per month. Within 
about one year he took sick, and when able 
to work, his means were exhausted, and he 
started again anew. In 1841, he was married 
to Bridget McGuire, which union blessed 
him with two children that grew up, viz., 
William J. and Ann. He began buying land 
as soon as he could save some means from bis 
daily labors, such as digging wells, chopping 
wood. etc. He has now 250 acres of well-im- 
proved land, the result of his own labors. 
He lived for many years in Winfield Town- 
ship, and in 1 867 he settled where he now re- 
sides in Wayne Townnship. He has ex- 
perienced the hardships that make up the life 
of the pioneer. He labored for some time in 
a distillery, yet has never attained the habit 
of drinking strong drinks. He has hauled 
wheat from this township to Chicago and 
sold it for 40 cents per bushel, and also oats 
at 20 cents. He served one term as School 
Trustee. He and wife early united with the 
Catholic Church. He votes the Democratic 
ticket. His son William was married to 
Mary E. Lynch, a daughter of James and 
Margaret Lynch, by whom he has. as a result 
of his union, four children, viz., Anna, John. 
Gertie and James W. William has good 



200 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



land adjoining the home place, and he with 
his family reside with his parents and sister 
Ann, who was never married. "William is 
now School Director, and has served in some 
small offices. Our subject has always taken 
a deep interest in educating his children, yet 
he had but little chance himself. He is now 
well along in years, burdened with poor 
health, while his consort suffers with cancer 
on the hand. 

EOBEET CARSWELL. farmer, Wayne 
Township, was born in Scotland May 1, 
1837, son of Allen and Janet (Johnson) 
Carswell. Our subject was the youngest of 
three sons, and emigrated to Herkimer Coun- 
ty, N. Y. , with his parents. He engaged for 
several years in agricultural pursuits in dif- 
ferent counties in New York State; then went 
to New Jersey, where he engaged in farming 
in Hudson County for two years ; then located 
in Otsego County, N. Y. From there Mr. 
Carswell came to Wayne Township, Du Page 
County, 111. For several years after coming 
to Illinois, Mr. Carswell worked at the car- 
penter's trade, which he had learned in New 
Jersey. In 1872, he married Emma Dun- 
ham, youngest daughter of Solomon Dunham, 
one of the old pioneers and representative 
men of this county. After marriage, Mr. 
Carswell lived one year in Wheaton, and the 
following spring located in this township, of 
which he has since been a resident. He has 
173 acres of land under cultivation, and ten 
acres of timber land. Since purchasing his 
place, he has erected a good house and barn 
and made general improvements. Aside 
from general farming, Mr. Carswell raises 
Norman horses and conducts a dairy, having 
thirty- seven cows. Mr. and Mrs. Carswell 
have four eh ildren — Robert F., Ira A. , Grace D., 
and Willard B. Mr. Carswell is a Republican. 

SOLOMON DUNHAM, deceased. Of the 
early settlers who came to this region of 



country and were prominently identified 
with its interests, was Solomon Dunham; 
although not an actual resident of the county, 
yet living as he did near the line, and in 
that early time lines were not as closely 
drawn as now, and being a man of much more 
than natural ability, possessed of an educa- 
tion much superior to the settlers in common, 
and being of strong mind and of a positive 
nature, his influence was felt to a large 
degree for miles about him. Hence, though 
Solomon Dunham was not an actual settler of 
Du Page County, yet it is no more than just 
to him that he receive some honorable men- 
tion in this volume. Most of his children 
and descendents have since become identified 
with this county. He was born in Saratoga 
County, N. Y. , in 1791. His father, who was 
an officer in the war of the Revolution, was a 
native of England, and had several sons, some 
of whom took sides with the British, and were 
denominated Tories. The father of our sub- 
ject took the side of the colonists, and took 
up arms against his brothers. Solomon, our 
subject, was bereft of his father at an early 
age, and was thus early in life thrown upon 
his own resources. He soon learned the tan- 
ner's and currier's trade and that of shoemak- 
ing, all of which he carried on for several 
years. He used to run a boat on the Hudson 
River; was engaged in the lumber business, 
and was on a sail boat passing down the river 
when the first steamboat jdowed the Hudson, 
and his boat run a race with the new steamer. 
He afterward removed West to Cattaraugus 
County, N. Y., and still carried on his trade 
and engaged in farming to some extent. As 
the tide of emigration was drifting west- 
ward, he caught the spirit of the times, and 
in March, 1S35, started with his family in a 
wagon, the party consisting of himself, wife 
and seven children — Betsey, Daniel. Harriet, 
Cordelia, Jane, Julia and Helen. He located 






WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 



201 



on Section 12, now St. Charles Township, 
bought a claim of about four hundred acres of 
land of Frances Perry, a portion of land ex- 
tending into Du Page County. He studied 
surveying, and surveyed oil' and divided many 
of the claims that were taken at that time, and 
in the settling these lines it often required 
much promptness and decision of character to 
settle disputes among the real claimants and 
the "jumpers."' He was the first Station 
Agent at Wayne Station on the Chicago & 
Galena Railroad, and built the first store 
there. In politics, he was a Jefferson Demo- 
crat, and up to the time of his death was true 
to the principles he held. He was a good 
farmer, and was successful in his business 
affairs. He was a good neighbor, and a valu- 
able member of the Commonwealth. He 
was the first County Commissioner and first 
Assessor in Kane County, and took an active 
part in the interests of the county as long as 
he lived. He died in April. 1865. His mar- 
riage to Lydia Ballard was blessed with 
eleven children, all born in New York, except 
Mark W. and Emma, now Mrs. Carswell; six 
are living — Daniel, Harriet, Cordelia, Helen, 
Mark W. and Emma, all now in Wayne Town- 
ship, except Mark W. and Harriet; the latter 
resides in St. Charles Township, adjoining 
Wayne Township, wife of Mark W. Fletcher. 
Betsey, now deceased, married Ira Albro; 
Helen; Jane married Daniel Stearns: Julia 
died aged sixteen; Cordelia resides in Wayne 
Township, wife of Peter Pratt: Emma, wife 
of Robert Carswell: Mark W.. on the home- 
stead. Solomon Dunham died April, 1865. 
DANIEL DUNHAM, farmer, breeder and 
importer of Percheron horses; residence, 
Grove Place; P. O. Wayne; is one of the 
prominent farmers of Du Page County, and 
ranks among the first of the breeders of fine 
stock in the State. He was born in Erie 
County, N. Y., January 13, 1821, and is the 



eldest son of Solomon and Lydia (Ballard) 
Dunham. At the age of five years, he removed 
with his parents to Gowanda. Cattaraugus 
Co., N. Y., where he remained till the spring 
of 1835, when he came West to Illinois, and 
located at St. Charles Township, Kane 
County, one-half mile from the Du Page 
County line, where his father purchased 
about 400 acres of land from Francis Perry. 
Mr. Dunham lived with his parents until he 
was twenty-seven years of age, having, in 
1812, purchased a farm of 250 acres in this 
county, which he began improving in 18-49. 
November 5, 1853, he married Olive Hatha- 
way, born in Steuben County, N. Y. , in May. 
1837, eldest daughter of Edward and Sallie 
A. (Dolph) Hathaway .he born in Massachu- 
setts in 1S15, son of Joel Hathaway, she 
born in Steuben County. N. Y., daughter of 
Alvin and Mary (Calkins) Dolph. The 
Hathaway family moved AY est in 1844 to St. 
Louis, Mo., where they remained until 1850, 
when they came to Wayne Township, this 
county. Mr. Dunham built a house in 1849, 
on his farm, where, after his marriage, he 
located and has since remained. Mr. and 
Mrs. Dunham have four daughters — Ellen 
D. , wife of Joseph Ross, of Wayne Town- 
ship; Flora L, wife of Charles P. Dewey, 
of the banking firm of Birge & Dewey, 
Toulon, Stark Co. , 111. ; Julia and Mary at 
home. Mr. Dunham began breeding and 
importing Norman horses in 1872, and makes 
a specialty of that business, in which he has 
met with good success. He has now forty 
brood mares and eighty head in all. Prior 
to his engaging in the breeding and import- 
ing of fine horses, he followed the dairy busi- 
ness, beginning in 1868. He kept about 100 
cows, and, in the summer of 1877, shipped 
to Chicago 7,000 cans of milk. Before keep- 
ing the dairy farm, he fed cattle for about 
ten years, shipping large numbers of cattle 



V 



202 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



and hogs. He carried on the dairy business 
till 1880, since which time he has given his 
attention to his horses. He has 800 acres of 
land, and one of the best improved farms in 
this county. Among the breeders of Per- 
cheron horses in the United States, Mr. Dun- 
ham ranks third. He is a supporter of the 
Democratic party. 

LYMAN W. DURFEE (deceased) was 
born in Windsor County, Vt., April 4, 1802; 
second son of Nathan and Cynthia (Slade) 
Durfee, natives of Vermont. Our subject 
was raised on a farm, and was early in life 
thrown on his own resources. He finally 
purchased some land and engaged in farm- 
ing. June 5, 1825, he married Betheny Al- 
len, born November 4, 1807, in Cayuga 
County, N. Y. , eldest child of Barry and 
Abigail (Derby) Allen, she a native of New 
York State, and he of Vermont. Mr. Durf ee 
came West in the fall of 1838; spent that 
winter two miles east of Elgin; thence he 
came to Kane County, 111., near the Du Page 
Couuty line, where he worked three years. 
He visited this county first in 1837, and 
brought his family here in 1838; in 1842, 
he pre empted a piece of land, which he 
afterward lost, and the following year bought 
forty acres for $40; he added to this land till 
he had 120 acres at the time of his death, 
which occurred December 5, 1874; he was a 
Democrat. Mr. and Mrs. Durfee had eight 
children — Jane, living in Jackson County, 
Wis., wife of Irvin Whitney; Martin, en- 
gaged in mining in Arizona; Harvey, in 
Kansas; Henry, in Idaho, mining; Almera, 
deceased; Andrew, Frank and Abigail, at 
home. 

W. J. GORHAM, farmer, P. O. Wayne 
Station, born November 27, 1837, in Dutch- 
ess County, N. Y. , the youngest son of Will- 
iam and Sarah (Halloway) Gorham. He re- 
moved West with his parents, and located 



with them in Will County, and remained 
there until his location on the farm he owns, 
which was shortly after his marriage, which 
occurred in July, 1866, to Lucinda Smith, 
daughter of John Smith, one of the early 
settlers. Mr. Gorham has an excellent 
farm; the buildings he has erected since his 
purchase; he has one child — Willis, born 
October 17, 1871. His father, William Gor- 
ham, was born in old Stratford, Conn., about 
the year 1792, son of William and Man- 
(Cannon) Gorham. Mary Cannon was born 
in France; her father came over with Lafay- 
ette, and fought in the Revolution under 
Washington. William Gorham. the grand- 
father of our subject, was a sea pilot by oc- 
cupation. He had ten children born to him, 
viz., Le Grand, Joseph, Hannah, William, 
Mar\% Lewis, Stephen, Charlotte, Curtis and 
Betsy. Le Grand was born the day that 
Danbury was burned; he settled in Massa- 
chusetts, and run a mill and kept a hotel at 
Great Barrington. Joseph went off with 
Commodore Porter on the sea, and was never 
heard of after. Hannah married George 
Robson, a Revolutionary soldier; they settled 
in New York. Mary settled in the same 
place; she was the wife of George Cox. 
Lewis settled in Great Barrington. Stephen 
in old Stratford, where he was born. Betsy 
married Capt. Kimball, and settled in New 
York. Charlotte and Curtis never married, 
so far as known. Sarah Holloway, the 
mother of W. J., was born July 22, 1800, in 
Pawling. Dutchess Co., N. Y. , daughter 
of Justice and Hannah (Parks) Holloway. 
Hannah was a daughter of Jacob Parks and 
Deborah Stevens. Jacob Parks married Lydia 
Tinkham, who was a daughter of Jacob Tink- 
ham, an Englishman by birth, who died leav- 
ing a large estate, which his heirs in this coun- 
try have never been able to get possession of. 
He (Jacob Tinkham) had three children — 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 



203 



Lydia, Hannah and Jacob; the latter died 
when crossing the ocean. To Justice Hollo- 
way and Hannah, his wife, were born five 
sons and one daughter, viz., Sarah, Debo- 
rah. Jacob, Althea A., Phebe and Anna; all 
of the above, except Sarah (Mrs. Gorharn), 
came West and settled at St. Charles, Kane 
County, this State. Justice Holloway died 
March 1, 1840; his wife survived him until 
January, 1862. William Gorham, the father 
of W. J., was a tanner and currier by trade, 
and carried on merchandising to some extent 
while in Dutchess County. After he came 
West, about 1852, he went to Will County, 
where he died. He was a member of the M. 
E. Church, and was held in high esteem by 
all who knew him. Seven children were 
born to him, viz.. Hannah E., Mary A., Ai- 
ken. Eletha, Jacob E., Elijah and William, 
all of whom are living, except Eletha. Han- 
nah E. resides in Grundy County, this State. 
relict of Newall Dodge. Mary A. resides in 
St. Charles, wife of R. H Leake. Aiken re- 
sides in Will County, a farmer; Jacob R. 
and William, in this township. 

JACOB RANSOM GORHAM, Wayne, is 
a native of Dutchess County, N. Y. , born 
September 26, 1830, second son of William 
and Sarah (Holloway) Gorham. William 
Gorham was born in Stratford, Conn. ; was a 
tanner and currier by trade, and, in addition 
to pursuing his trade, carried on mercantile 
business and the manufacture of boots and 
shoes; his wife, who was a daughter of Jus- 
tice Holloway, was born in Pawling, Dutch- 
ess Co., N. Y. Mr. Gorham learned the 
trade of a carpenter and joiner: left home 
when he attained his majority, and arrived in 
this township with but §4 in his pocket, and 
engaged in farming with R. H. Lake; after- 
ward, traded in stock, meeting with success. 
After one year, he dissolved partnership with 
Mr. Lake and returned East, and, after stay- 



ing a short time, returned to this county and 
worked at his trade and also engaged in farm- 
ing. In 1855, he married Adelia Reed, born 
November 15, 1838, only daughter of Horace 
Reed; from this union five children were 
born — Almira, wife of Thomas W. Lake; 
Gussie F. . Edith, Horace and Mamie. Hor- 
ace Reed, Mrs. Gorham's father, was born 
January 26, 1795, in Weston, Mass. ; came 
West and settled on the place now owned by 
our subject, which he improved and on which 
he remained until his death, which occurred 
January 28, 1867. April 19, 1818, he mar- 
ried Almira Parker, a native of Massachu- 
setts, born May 5, 1800, daughter of William 
and Sallie (Parker) Parker, also natives of 
Massachusetts. William Parker was born in 
Lynn, Mass., and died in 1828, aged fifty- 
seven years; his wife born in Leicester, 
Mass., died November 3, 1863, at the ad- 
vanced age of ninety-two years; they had the 
following children, who grew to maturity: 
Esther, Otis (settled in Vermont), Almira and 
Louisa (twins), Sarah and Mary. Mr. Parker 
settled in Vermont in 1803, and died in that 
State; his wife and daughters came to Illinois 
in 1859. Horace Reed served in the war of 
1812; afterward, joined a militia artillery 
company, in which he was promoted from 
Sergeant to Captain; he and his wife were 
members of the M. E. Church. After his 
marriage, Mr. Gorham bought a farm of sev- 
enty acres, which, after working six years, he 
sold, and bought 180 acres in the same school 
district; worked it five years, then sold out 
and bought his present place, on which he 
has lived since 1867; his farm consists of 
337 acres; he carries on general farming and 
dairying. He is a supporter of the Demo- 
cratic party. William Gorham, subject's 
father, had seven children, six of whom are 
living — Hannah E., residing in Grundy 
County, relict of Newall Dodge; Mary A., in 



204 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



St. Charles, wife of R. H. Lake; Elijah; Ai- 
ken, a farmer in Will County, 111. ; Jacob R. 
(subject) and William, in this county; he 
was a Methodist. The Gorhams were early 
settlers of Stratford, Conn., being there in 
1777 ; they came out with the Pilgrim Fathers. 
The Holloways were of Quaker descent. 

M. J. HAMMOND, farmer, P. O. Wayne, 
was born in Dutchess County, N. Y. , October 
13, 1834, eldest son of Egbert and Phoebe 
(Halloway) Hammond, he a native of New 
York, born in 1809, son of Mathew Ham- 
mond, she a daughter of Justice Holloway 
and Hannah Parks, daughter of Jacob Parks, 
all of Dutchess County, N. Y. Jacob was 
one of the first settlers of that county, and a 
Revolutionary soldier. The Holloways were 
of Scotch descent, the Hammonds from En- 
gland. Jacob Parks died aged eighty-eight. 
The Hammonds came West in 1850. The 
family consisted of parents and five children 
— M. J. , Perry H. , Jacob C. , Sarah and Em- 
ma. Perry H. died in the army, a member 
of the One Hundred and Fifth Illinois Vol- 
unteer Infantry, Company F. ; Jacob died at 
home, aged twenty-two; Sarah and Emma 
are at home. When Mr. Hammond came to 
this township, he bought in company with 
A. H. Leake; stayed here one year, but settled 
finally on Section 16, and lived there from 
1S61 to 1808. M. J. remained with family 
till he was twenty-one. In 1855, he bought 
land. In 1861, he enlisted in the Thirty- 
sixth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Company K, 
and served until September, 1862; was Sec- 
ond Lieutenant, and resigned; he re-entered 
the service as private, but was promoted to 
Fifth Sergeant, and finally was commissioned 
as Second Lieutenant; he was at Pea Ridge 
and the siege of Corinth. After his return 
home, he resumed farming, and has since 
lived here. He owns 250 acres here and 120 
acres on Section 16; has farmed and run 



a dairy. Mr. Hammond has served as Jus- 
tice of the Peace two terms; also for several 
years as Assessor and Collector. He was 
married, in February, 1863, to Miss Marga- 
ret Simpson, born in Ontario County, N. Y. . 
daughter of John and Alice (Palmer) Simp- 
son. Mr. Simpson came to Cook County in 
1835. Six children have been born: Charles 
M. , Florence A., Frank J. and Edward. 

JOSIAH HARRIS, Bartlett, Cook County. 
Among the early settlers in this township 
was the Harris family. Josiah was born 
April 26, 1836, in London, England, the 
second son of Benjamin and Amy (Cook) 
Harris. The family emigrated to this State 
in 1845, and bought eighty acres in this 
township, Section 2. The father remained 
here until his death, in 1860. aged fifty-seven 
years; he was a member of the Protestant M. 
E. Church; he raised four children, three of 
whom came here — Josiah, Amy and Hannah. 
Benjamin remained in England. The mother 
is still living. Amy resides in Minnesota, 
wife of John H. Mason; Hannah resides in 
Grinnell, Iowa. Josiah has since remained 
in this county. He was married, in May, 
1867, to Jane Denham, born in this county, 
daughter of Robert and Jane Denham, natives 
of the Isle of Wight, and seven children 
have been born to them — Hannah E., Robert 
B., Amy J., Melvin J., William, Irvin and 
Nathaniel. Mr. Harris has 125 acres of ex- 
cellent land, and is a Baptist and a Republi- 
can. 

ABRAHAM KERSHAW is a descendant 
of one of the early settlers, and is one of the 
leading breeders of Short-Horn cattle of this 
county, born in Rhode Island July 10, 1822. 
His father, for whom he is named, was a na- 
tive of Manchester, England, and was a 
weaver by trade; he married Rachel Butter- 
worth, who bore her husband thirteen chil- 
dren, of whom our subject is the third son 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 



205 



and fourth child; three of the oldest were 
born in England. Subject's father came to 
this country in 1818; he was a thorough silk 
and cotton weaver, and ran great risks in 
coming to America when he did, as at that 
time England had forbidden her mechanics 
to c >me to this country. He first operated a 
factory in Rhode Island, then went to New 
York State, and. in 1838, came West, locat- 
ing in what is now Wayne Township. Du 
Page County, 111. ; here he died in June. 
1850; his wife died in 1840. Mr. Kershaw, 
our subject, now owns the homestead, situ- 
ated in Section 7. Of the thirteen children, 
seven grew to maturity, viz. , John, Abraham, 
William, Mary, Marsden, Minerva and 
Charles; of these, three are now living — 
John, in Johnson County, Neb. ; Marsden, 
in San Francisco, Cal.. and Charles, in Can- 
ada. Abraham being the only one of the chil- 
dren in this State. When our subject was a 
lad of seven years, he worked in the factory 
at Fall Eiver, printing calico, at SI per 
week, and boarded himself; he then worked 
mainly for his father until the latter's death. 
Mr. Kershaw was married, in September, 
1 851 I, to Mrs. Althea J. Whipple, relict of 
Dr. Thomas Whipple, a native of New York. 
who came West in an early day. Mrs. 
(Whipple) Kershaw died July 4, 1873. Mr. 
Kershaw married his second wife. Mrs. Emily 
Lee. January 24, 1880; she was born in Kane 
County, 111., daughter of George Muir. Mr. 
Kershaw has, by his second wife, two chil- 
dren — Althea and Abraham. Jr. Our sub- 
ject located on his present farm in 1852; he 
traded a suit of clothes and a gun for his first 
claim; he now owns 320 acres. Since 1S55, 
he has been engaged in the breeding and 
raising of Short-Horn cattle; he has bred 
some of the finest cattle in the county, having 
raised twin steers that weighed respectively 
3,350 and 3,400 pounds; they were sold in 



Chicago, and were on exhibition at Dexter 
Park; he raised a three-year-old heifer that 
weighed 2,200 pounds; he also raises some 
Berkshire hogs. His farm is finely located, 
and he has the best of farm implements. 
Politically, he is a Democrat. 

JOHN KLINE, Winfield, was born in the 
city of New York December 27. 1828. son of 
Casper M. and Louisa (Krebell) Kline. 
Casper Kline was born in Germany August 
28, 1801, and came to America when very 
young; his wife, whose parents were from 
Germany, was born in Philadelphia, Penn. , 
and died in January, 1 876 ; they had the fol- 
lowing children, all living: Matthias, in 
Michigan; John and Francis, on the home 
farm in Winfield Township; Mary L.. wife 
of Thomas Watson, of Winfield Township: 
Joseph, in Benton County. Iowa; Louisa, 
wife of Nathan Benjamin, of Wayne Town- 
ship. Mr. Kline remained on the home farm 
till he had reached the age of twenty-four 
years, and, November 23, 1852, married 
Clarissa M. Champion, bom in Canada. 
daughter of Elias and Susan (Ayres) Cham- 
pion; she died January 25, 1858, leaving 
two children — Eliza A. , wife of Byron Keid, 
of Kane County, 111., and Francis T., in 
Black Hawk County, Iowa. September 21. 
1859, Mr. Kline married Caroline E. Benja- 
min, born August 23, 1836, eldest daughter 
of R. T. Benjamin, one of the earliest settlers 
of this township. Since his marriage. Mr. 
Kline has resided in this township, at the 
Junction for some time, and at Wheaton six 
years, locating in the latter place December 
5, 1870. He has held the office of Sheriff 
three terms, being elected in the fall of 1870, 
and since re-elected twice; he has also been 
Road Commissioner one term. He moved to 
his farm in 1S55, and has since resided there, 
with the exception of the time he resided at the 
Junction and at Wheaton while acting as Sher- 



2(lfi 



];i»k;raphical: 



iff; his farm consists of 102| acres of land. By 
his last marriage, he has four children — Ade- 
laide C. , Cooper M., John R. and Nathan J. 

GEORGE KLINE, farmer, P. O. Winfield. 
Among the prominent farmers of Wayne 
Township is the gentleman whose name heads 
this sketch. He is a native of Prussia, born 
December 1, 1822, son of Michael Kline. 
The family came to this State, bought eighty 
acres the same year and settled upon it, where 
they lived and where the father died in 1866, 
the mother surviving until 1876. They had 
two sons and two daughters, the daughters 
being dead — Jacob, in Kansas, and our subject 
being the survivors. Mr. Kline learned the 
shoemaker's trade in his native country, and 
worked several years at the same in Naper- 
ville. He bought the farm he now owns in 
1853, and has made all the improvements on 
it. June 22, 1850, he was married to The- 
resa Hentes, born in 1832, daughter of Math- 
ew Hentes, and six children have been born 
to them— Peter, Jacob, Nicholas, George M. , 
Theresa and Maggie. He has 194 acres at 
the Junction and 170 acres here. Mr. Kline 
is a member of the Catholic Church and a 
Democrat. 

ROBERT H. LAKE was born in Dutch- 
ess County. N. Y, October 27, 1819, and is 
the eldest son of Thomas and Elise Lake, 
both natives of New York and parents of 
seven children, six of whom grew to maturity. 
Mr. Lake remained with his father on the 
farm till he was twenty-seven years of age, 
and, in June, 1849, came "West, to Illinois, 
and bought 152 acres of land in this town- 
ship at $12 an acre; afterward increased his 
farm to 222 acres, and carried on farming 
and dairying; in 1876, he removed to St. 
Charles. He married Mary Ann Gorham, 
also a native of Dutchess County, N. Y. , and 
daughter of "William Gorham; they have two 
children — Thomas and Imogene. He is a 



supporter of the Democratic party. Thomas 
"W. Lake, only son of the subject of this 
sketch, is one of the enterprising farmers of 
this township. He was born on the farm on 
which he now lives, September 25, 1851. 
He married, December 15, 1875, Almira 
Gorham, born May 11, 1855, eldest daugh- 
ter of Jacob R. Gorham; they have one child 
— Jacob Ransom Bertie, born July 15, 1882. 
Mr. Lake has had control of the farm since 
his marriage. 

THOMAS MUIR, farmer, Wayne Tp. . was 
born April 2, 1810, in Scotland, youngest of 
eleven children born to Alexander Muir, a 
shepherd and small farmer, who died in Scot- 
land. Our subject was a shepherd boy un- 
der his father until coming to Canada, land- 
ing at Quebec in June, 1832, after a voyage 
of eight weeks. After working by the month 
in Canada for three years, he came (just pre- 
vious to the Patriot war in Canada) to Buffa- 
lo, N. Y. He worked in a saw-mill in 
Buffalo for a short time, then on a railroad 
running from Buffalo to Niagara Falls (this 
was one of the first railroads); subsequently, 
he was engaged in a saw-mill and at the car- 
penter's trade on the Illinois River; then, 
after recovering from a severe illness, he 
worked in Chicago for two winters, then 
bought and worked up thirteen acres of tim- 
ber on North Branch. Mr. Muir next came 
to Bloomingdale, Da Page County, and bought 
120 acres for $800; he also paid $25 for a 
claim, and entered the same. After making 
some improvements on his land, he returned 
to Chicago and engaged in the commission 
business for two winters, then, after a return 
to his farm, he sold goods on commission for 
James F. Durant, and subsequently, handled 
the same line of goods on his own account. 
Mr. Muir next located on his farm, built a 
house and remained there until April, 1867, 
when he bought 178J- acres in Wayne Town- 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 



207 



ship, where he still resides. October 7, 
1857, Mr. Muir married Esther J. Owen, 
bern June 9, 1826, in Hastings, Oswego Co. , 
N. Y., daughterof Shubel and Hannah (Cook) 
Owen, natives of New York. Mrs. Muir's 
paternal grandfather served during the entire 
war of the Revolution. Mr. and Mrs. Muir 
have buried three infants, and now have four 
children — Alexander J., Albert O., Helen J. 
and Thomas E. Mr. Muir was raised in the 
faith of the church of Scotland, or Old School 
Presbyterians; he is now a member of the 
Baptist Church. In politics, he is a Repub- 
lican, but cast his first vote for Harrison. 

W. H. MOFFATT, farmer, Wayne Tp., 
who was born February 24, 1810, in Orange 
County, N. Y. , came to this county in 1845, 
and purchased a part of a claim from the 
Government, upon which he settled and 
where he has since remained. He was the eld- 
est sou of Thomas and Deborah (Helm) Moffatt, 
natives of New York State. Thomas was a 
farmer, and raised a family of eight children 
— W. H., Mary A., Phebe, William, Sylva- 
nus, Catharine, Anselm and Ruth, all of 
whom are living except William; Mary A., 
wife of Elmer Gregory, lives in Elgin; Phebe 
resides in Bartlett, Cook County, relict of 
Henry V. Sayer; William died a young man; 
Sylvanus resides in Wheaton, and Catharine 
in the same place, relict of Frank Bordeen; 
Anselm resides in Kansas near Clyde, Cloud 
County; Ruth, wife of Daniel L. Wheelock, 
resides in Iowa. Mr. Moffatt's father, Thom- 
as, died in September, 1827; his wife died 
iu May, 1879. Our subject remained on the 
home farm until he became twenty-three 
years old, when he began for himself. He 
was married, December 31, 1833, to Dolly A. 
Watkins, born February 3, 1809, in Orange 
County, N. Y. ; she is the youngest child of 
Joshua and Ann (Tuthill) Watkins, both of 
Orange County, N. Y. ; Joshua was a son of 



Hezekiah and Dolly (Brown) Watkins. Ann 
was a daughter of Benjamin and Susan Tut- 
hill. After leaving home, Mr. Moffatt worked 
land on shares until he came West and set- 
tled on his present farm of 203 acres. Mr. 
and Mrs. Moffatt have had three children — 
Mary, Thomas and Albert. Thomas enlisted 
in September, 1861, in Company K, Thirty- 
sixth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and, after 
serving one year, was killed in the battle of 
Perryville; Mary, wife of Jonas G. Blank, 
resides in this township; Albert resides on 
the homestead, and is married to Alice Wal 
cott; they have two children — Charles and 
Fannie. Mr. Moffatt and his family are 
members of the Congregational Church. Mr. 
Moffatt was a Whig, and has been a Repub- 
lican since the organization of that party. 

ERNST MEYER, farmer, P. O. Ontario- 
ville. Among the settlers of Bloomingdale 
was Mr. Meyer, who was born September 1, 
1819, in the Kingdom of Hanover. He was 
the eldest son of Christian and Margaret 
(Essmann) Meyer. Ernst remained with his 
father till he was fourteen years of age, when 
he went to clerking for some time, when he 
went into the army, where, in consequence of 
merit, ho was appointed to a position as serv- 
itor"at court, where he remained till twenty- 
eight years of age. In 1848, he came to 
America, and, coming to this county, bought 
eighty acres of land in Addison Township, 
where he lived some time, and then went to 
Brush Hill and lived. In the fall of 1850, 
he married Louisa Krausa, born in Prussia, 
daughter of John Krausa; she died August 
26, 1 W>, leaving one child — Matilda. Feb- 
ruary 29, 1856, he married Wilhelmina Hin- 
amann, a native of Hanover, born May 22. 
1826, daughterof George and Margarita (Ro- 
ller) Hinamann. Six children were born, five 
of whom are living — Loixisa, George, Augus- 
ta, Julius, Mary (dead) and Emma. Louisa 



208 



BIOGRAPHICAL : 



lives in Chicago, wife of Charles Schramm. 
Matilda, first wife's child, married John Red- 
eker, of Elgin. Mr. Meyer has lived here 
since 1856, and has put all the improvements 
on his farm. He sells very little grain, feed- 
ing the same to his stock. He is a member 
of the Evangelical Church and a Republican. 
PATRICK O'BRIEN, farmer, P. O. Bart- 
lett. Among the self-made men of this town- 
ship is Patrick O'Brien, who was born in 
June, 1826, on the Emerald Isle, County 
Wexford, of a family of twelve children 
born to Thomas O'Brien and Bridget Grant. 
Patrick obtained a good common-school edu- 
cation, and was raised to farming pursuits 
and was early in life thrown upon his own 
resources, and, at the age of sixteen, he emi- 
grated to this country, and soon made his way 
to Chicago, where he worked for several 
years, turning his attention to any honest 
labor that would promise the best and surest 
returns. Having, by diligence and economy, 
saved some means, he entered 160 acres of 
land in Bloomingdale Township, located in 
the northwestern part; this he obtained at 
Government price. He soon settled on the 
same and improved it and remained on it un- 
til about 1866, when he sold out and pur- 
chased 200 acres in this township of Daniel 
Wheelock and has since been a constant resi- 
dent of this township and been engaged in 
farming pursuits, and, from a poor and friend- 
less boy, has come to be one of th.> county's 
substantial farmers. He has been twice mar- 
ried — first, to Mary Ackermann, a native of 
Germany, who died in 1866. Of ten chil- 
dren born of her, five are living— John, Mike, 
Henry, Mary and Carrie. Mary married 
James Shields, and resides in the township; 
other children at home. His last wife was 
Mary Calloway, a native of Ireland. Mr. 
O'Brien is a Democrat and a member of the 
Catholic Church. 



CHARLES PLANE, farmer, P. O. Tur- 
ner Junction. Most of the young people of 
the present generation are not aware of the 
difficulties and discouraging circumstances 
that attended the early settlers upon their 
making a start in life. The history of many 
of these men should be a valuable incentive 
to the young men of the present age. The 
success that has crowned their efforts .is with- 
in the reach of all those that will heed the 
lesson taught by the experience of these men. 
Among the self-made men of Du Page County 
who has succeeded under adverse and dis- 
couraging circumstances is Charles Plane. 
He was born March 6, 1820, in Norfolk, En- 
gland, and emigrated with his father, Pelan 
Plane, to Livingston Coutny, N. Y., when 
about ten years of age. His father hired him 
out to a hard master, with whom he remained 
until about fourteen years of age, when his 
treatment and the requirements made of him 
became almost past endurance, and he left 
him and turned his back upon the Empire 
I State, and came West, to this State, and 
hired out among the farmers on Rock River, 
in Ogle County. By diligence and economy, 
he succeeded at length in a few years in ob- 
taining the nucleus of a home. About this 
time his father came "West, and, as he was 
yet under age, Charles had to give up his 
hard earnings, and he struck out to make 
another beginning;. Went first to Cook 
County, where he worked some time in a liv- 
ery stable, after which he went to Boone 
County, remaining here one year. After 
this, he came to Maywood and kopt tavern 
two years; then went to Algonquin, McHenry 
County, and carried on the same business one 
year. Subsequently, came to this county and 
purchased 160 acres, where he now resides; 
the land cost him $9 per acre. Since that 
time, he has been a constant resident of the 
township, and is to-day one of the wealthy 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 



209 



farmers of the county, having here 300 acres, 
besides 330 in Kane County. His improve- 
ments are among the best in the township. 
He lost his former residence by fire, which 
has since been replaced by a large and com- 
modious residence of modern style. Few, 
if any, men have worked harder than Mr. 
Plane, yet. notwithstanding all the obstacles 
thrown in his way, he has surmounted them 
all and is now independent, having a compe- 
tence laid by for his declining years. He has 
beeD twice married; his first wife was Lucy 
Clark, daughter of Daniel Clark, one of the 
early settlers of the county; his wife died, leav- 
ing two sons — Albert and George, now of Kane 
County. His present wife was Sophia, born in 
Allegany County, N. Y. , daughter of Levi H. 
Appleby and Rebecca Stoddard, who came West 
in 1842; hedied in 1852; she. June, 1881. By 
last wife he has three children — Edwin, 
Carrie and Minnie. Carrie resides in Kane 
County, wife of Joseph Higgins. Mr. Plane 
used to haul wheat from Rock River to Chi- 
cago, when the trip would take eleven days, 
wheat 45 to 50 cents j>er bushel, often getting 
stuck in the road, and would have to convey 
the wheat on his back to dry ground; this 
would have to be repeated several times din- 
ing the same trip. Mr. Plane had eight 
brothers and sisters, who are severally located 
as follows: John resides in Bel videre; Robert 
in Independence, Buchanan Co. , Iowa; Sarah 
resides in Belvidere. also, is the wife of Ben- 
jamin Gill; Esther settled in Ogle County, 
wife of Matthew Riseborough ; Charlotte lives 
near Fort Dodge, wife of Thomas Gill. Mr. 
Plane is a Republican. 

PETER PRATT, farmer, Wayne; was 
born in Erie County, N. Y., March 1, 1823, 
eldest son of Luther and Ruby (Shippy) 
Pratt, he born in Massachusetts, son of Peter 
and Olive (Short) Pratt, natives of Massachu- 
aetts, she born in Vermont, daughter of Jacob 



Shippy. The Pratt family are of Scotch de- 
scent. When twelve years of age, our sub- 
ject removed with his parents to Cattaraugas 
County, N. Y. , where they remained seven 
years, and then all started in a wagon for Illi- 
nois. They located in Kane County, 111., in 
the fall of 1842. and. two years later, the 
father bought a small piece of land in Wayne 
Township, where Wayne Station is now situ- 
ated, on the Chicago & North-Western Rail- 
road. Subject's father died in 1840, and 
his mother in 1S64; they raised eight chil- 
dren — Olive, now Mrs. T. Evans, of Belle - 
vue, 111.; Peter, our subject; Mary, now Mrs. 
Albert ComptoD, of Kendall County, 111. ; 
Philogus, deceased about 1850; Eleanor, now 
Mrs. Charles Wheeler, of Linn County, Kan. ; 
Christopher, a resident of Jackson County. 
Ore. ; Rebecca, now Mrs. John Norton, of 
Coftey County, Kan. ; Annetta, now Mrs. 
Georo-e Furnell, of Pecatonica, this State. 
Our subject remained at home, working on 
the farm, till he was twenty-one years old. 
when he began for himself ; worked as a farm 
hand, at $12 a month; also chopped wood 
and split rails, boarding himself. Septem- 
ber 26, 1847, Mr. Pratt married Cordelia 
Dunham, born March 11, 1825, in Erie Coun- 
ty, N. Y. ; she is the third daughter of Solo- 
mon Dunham, one of the early settlers of 
this county. After his marriage, Mr. Pratt 
located on his present farm, on Section 17; 
this place of 131 acres he purchased in 1840; 
he owns some timber land in Kane County; 
he raises some horses. Mr. and Mrs. Pratt 
have had five children — Mark D., who died 
May 20, I860, at the age of eleven; George, 
now in Washington Territory, in the railroad 
business; Jessie, wife of Thomas Julian. 
residents of Plate Centre, Kane Co., HI.. 
Emma and Frank, at home. Mr. Pratt, al- 
though not a member, is a supporter of the 
Congregational Church, of which his wife 



210 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



and family are members. Mr. Pratt, former- 
ly a Whig, is now a Republican. 

JAMES T. PIERCE, farmer, P. O. Bart- 
lett, Cook County, is a native and one of the 
early settlers of the county, born in the 
town of Lisle February 2, 1822, second 
son of Martin and Esther Pierce, natives 
of Massachusetts. Martin Pierce came to 
this county in the fall of 1835, and settled 
near Naperville and died in 1865; his wife 
survived him several years. The subject of 
this sketch remained at home till 1845, and, 
in 1851, located permanently on his present 
place, consisting of 212 acres of land, on 
which he has put all the improvements nec- 
essary to a well-regulated farm. He mar- 
ried Sarah, daughter of Mr. J. Blank, and 
from this union eight children have been 
born — Austin, Eva, Spencer, Carrie, Mate M., 
Eugene, Frank and Etta. Austin is in Gen- 
oa, 111.; Eva is the wife of Rev. John Bid- 
well, and Carrie resides in Marengo, 111., 
wife of Marsh Underwood. Mr. Pierce is a 
Republican; is Road Commissioner, and has 
held several other local offices; his wife is a 
member of the Congregational Church. 

GEORGE W. REED,f armer, P. O. Turner, 
one of the early settlers of this township, was 
born February 26, 1806, in Cambridge (then 
Franklin) County, Vt. He is the youngest 
son of Nathaniel and Anna (Keys) Reed, na- 
tives of Warren, Mass. Mr. Reed remained 
upon the home farm until seventeen years of 
age, when he began clerking in a store in St. 
Albans, Vt. ; there he remained till he was 
twenty-four years old, when he engaged in 
the mercantile business in Cambridge, Vt. , 
in company with his brother Renssalear; they 
continued this business until about 1834. 
January 1, of that year, Mr. Reed married 
Julia A. Ellenwood, born in Johnson, Vt., 
December 28, 1816, eldest child of Thomas 
and Alice Lathroj), she born in Connecticut, 



daughter of Veranus Lathrop, he born in 
Vermont, son of Ralph Ellenwood. After 
Mr. Reed's marriage, he removed to Cuyahoga 
County, Ohio, and remained there about two 
years. In the fall of 1837, came to this place 
and took a claim where the cheese factory 
now stands ; he remained upon that claim till 
1842, when he sold out and bought the claim 
where he now lives, paying $100 for 180 
acres. Mr. and Mrs. Reed have had eight 
children — Rodney B. , born in Ohio, died 
June 4, 1880; George B. , living in Kane 
County; William L., a merchant at Junction; 
Emily A., wife of Robert Benjamin, living 
in this township; David E., deceased; Julia 
A., at home; Charles F., also at home, and 
Ida M. , wife of Charles P. Stark, located at 
Junction; the last seven children were born 
in Illinois. George B. was in the late war, 
serving in Company F, One Hundred and 
Fifth Regiment, Twentieth Corps; was with 
Sherman in about all of his battles. Will- 
iam Thomas was out in the 100-days' service. 
Mr. Reed has been a member of the M. E. 
Church for about thirty years; in politics, he 
is a Republican. 

HENRY VENDUSER SAYER (deceased) 
was born in March 15, 1815, in Orange Coun- 
ty, N. Y., eldest son of William and Mary 
(Venduser) Sayer. William was a native of 
Orange County, N. Y. , son of Jonathan Say- 
er. The Vendusers were from Holland. 
Mary was a daughter of Henry Venduser. 
To William and Mary Sayer were born six 
children, five of whom lived to maturity — 
Fannie, Henry, Catharine, Harriet and Jo- 
seph, none of whom are now living. Henry 
V. was raised a farmer and was married, 
April 10, 1838, to Phebe E. Moffatt. born 
December 13, 1813, in Orange County, N. Y., 
third child and second daughter of Thomas 
and Deborah (Helm) Moffatt, both natives of 
Orange County, N. Y. Thomas was a son of 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 



211 



William Moffatt. In 1837, Mr. Sayer came 
West to see the country, and, in the spring 
of 1S3S, took up a claim near Aurora, but fi- 
nally traded for a claim in Wayne and located 
there in 1841, where he remained until his 
death, December 5, 1874; he was a Whig in 
the early times, but became a Republican. 
Since the spring of 1876, Mrs. Sayer has re- 
sided in Bartlett. To Mr. Sayer were born 
eight children — William, Warren, Alvira, 
Harriet, Theodore, Charles, Emily and Mary. 
Alvira is the wife of Alex Thompson, of 
Wheaton; Harriet is Mrs. William Howard, 
Maryville, Mo. ; Theodore is on the homestead ; 
Charles is in Bartlett, in the cabinet busi- 
ness: Emily is the wife of Ed Phillips, of 
Maitland, Mo. ; Mary is Mrs. Will Richard- 
son. Mrs. Sayer is a member of the Congre- 
gational Church. 

WILLIAM SAYER, farmer, P. O. Bart- 
lett, Cook County, is one of the enterprising 
farmers of this county, and was born in Kane 
County. 111., January 16, 1839; he came to 
this county with his j'arents, and has since 
resided here; he received his early educa- 
tion in the common schools of this county, 
afterward attending Elgin Academy for some 
time. April 8, 1869, he married Emma F. 
Martin, a native of Addison Township, this 
county, and daughter of Charles W. and 
Nancy (Pierce) Martin. Charles W. Martin, 
Mrs. Sayer's father, was born in Potsdam, N. 
Y. , January 11, 1816, and, Septemper 6, 
1838, he married Nancy Pierce, born in Os- 
wego County, N. Y. , April 6, 1816, daughter 
of John Pierce; from this union they had 
eight children — George D. , killed in the late 
war, member of the Fifty-first Illinois Infant- 
ry, Company B; Smith D. served in the 
Eighth Illinois Cavalry, now a farmer of 
Wright County, Iowa; EmmaF. (Mrs. Sayer); 
Milton E., in Elgin, 111.; Orel L., wife of 
Malcomb McNeil, of Chicago; Alva D., in 



Elgin, 111. , and two others who died when 
young. Mr. Martin and family were early set- 
tlers of Addison Township, this county; they 
moved to this township in 1867. After his 
marriage, Mr. Sayer moved to his present 
farm, where he has since remained. Mr. and 
Mrs. Sayer have been blessed with four chil- 
dren, two of whom are deceased — George 
Martin, Dyer O. , Clara A. (died, aged one 
year and eleven months), and a babe deceased, 
unnamed. Mr. Sayer has a good farm and 
keeps twenty-live cows. He and his wife are 
members of the Congregational Church; his 
parents were members of the M. E. Church. 
In politics, he is a Republican. 

WARREN M. SAYER, Wayne, was born 
near Aurora, 111., January 5, 1841, and is a 
son of H. B. Sayer. When less than a year 
old, hiB parents moved to this county, and 
Warren M. remained at home till he attained 
his majority, when, July 31, 1862. he enlist- 
ed in Company F, One Hundred and Fifth 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and served till 
the close of the war, participating in the 
battle of Nashville, Tenn. , and other engage- 
ments. After his return from the war, he 
remained at home one year, and, in Decem- 
ber, 1866, married Harriet M. Brown, a na- 
tive of Madison County, N. Y. , and daughter 
of James and Harriet (Smith) Brown. By 
this union, they have been blessed with three 
sons — James H. , Eugene D. and Louis A. 
In the spring of 1867, Mr. Sayer located on 
the farm which he now owns, consisting of 
106 acres of land, where he has since resided, 
with the exception of four years, which he 
spent on the homestead farm. Mr. Sayer 
was elected Township Clerk in 1867. and has 
since served in that office, and is now serving 
his third term- as Township Treasurer. He 
is a Republican. 

THEODORE F. SAYER, farmor and 
dairyman, P. O. Bartlett, was born on the 



212 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



homestead farm, where he now resides, May 
1, 1848, son of Henry V. and Phebe (Moffatt) 
Sayer. Our subject was raised on the farm 
and remained under the parental roof till his 
marriage, which occurred February IS, 1875, 
to Martha Smith, born June 30, 1851, in 
Steuben County, N. Y. . and daughter of 
William and Jane (Jones) Smith, both na- 
tives of New York, he born January IS, 1818, 
son of David Smith, a native of Scotland, 
and was one of the early settlers in that 
county, as early as 1810. Jane Jones was 
born December 18, 1S25, daughter of Harley 
and Lucy (Sidney) Jones. Our subject took 
charge of the farm since his marriage, and 
has 120 acres from the old homestead. He 
has two children — William Smith and Phebe 
Emily. Mr. Sayer runs a dairy and fifty 
cows. 

JOHN SMITH, P. O. Wayne, was born in 
Orange County, Vt. , January 29, 1808, and 
is the second son of Asa and Lucinda (Morey) 
Smith, natives of Massachusetts. Asa Smith, 
subject's father, who was a farmer by occupa- 
tion, was a prominent man in his locality, 
and represented his county in the Legisla- 
ture, as did also subject's grandfather Morey. 
Mr. Smith's mother, Lucinda Morey, was a 
daughter of Simeon Morey, who was born in 
1739, and who served in the French and 
Revolutionary wars; he had five children — 
Sabra, Lucinda, David, Ephraim, and Bertha, 
all of whom grew to maturity. Mr. Smith's 
grandfather, Asa Smith, was of English de- 
scent, and served in the Revolutionary war; 
he had eight ^children, all of whom grew up 
—Stephen, Polly, Asa, Manasseh, William, 
Abigail, Lydia and Silas. Mr. Smith re- 
mained on the home farm until he attained 
his majority; then staid with his brother 
Manasseh in Orange County, N. Y., four 
years, worked out two years, then bought a 
one-fourth interest in a blast furnace in St. 



Lawrence County, N. Y., but after two years, 
sold out his interest and returned to Vermont. 
He came to this county October 15, 1837, 
and bought a claim of land of Mark Fletcher 
for §200. On this claim there were no build- 
ings of any kind, and but ten acres of land 
broken. After living there five years, he 
moved to his present place, where he has ever 
since resided, and where he now has 252 
acres. Mr. Smith was married September 
10, 1837. to Elizabeth H. Banfill, born in 
Corinth, Orange Co., Vt., March 6. 1816, 
youngest daughter of John and Hannah (Dear- 
born) Banfill, both of Massachusetts, he a 
son of John Banfill, she a daughter of Samuel 
Dearborn, who served in the Revolutionary 
war. Mrs. Smith's parents had twelve chil- 
dren, ten of whom grew to maturity — Sally, 
Samuel, Mary, Abigail, Hannah, Clymenia, 
Prenella, John, Elizabeth and David. Mr. 
and Mrs. Smith have been blessed with the 
following children: George Asa, born in 
May, 1839; Mary L., February, 1842; Henry 
A., November, 1<843; Ellen E., August, 1845; 
Albert E. , August. 1 847 ; Newton A. , August, 
1849; Sarah L., October, 1852, and Florence 
E. , September, 1856 ; and of these three are 
deceased — Sarah L., November 19, 1856; 
George A., August 15, 1863, and Albert E., 
November 10, 1865. George A. , when with- 
in a month of his graduation from college, en- 
listed in Company F, One Hundred and Fifth 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and his death 
afterwards occurred from disease contracted 
while in the service. Albert E. also died 
from the same cause; he first enlisted for the 
three months' service, and afterward re-en- 
listed. Mary L. resides in this township, 
wife of William Gorham; Elizabeth E. , wife 
of William Lewis, resides in Webster County, 
Neb.; Henry A. is on the home farm; Newton 
A. lives in this township, and Florence, wife 
of John D. Colvin, in Wheaton, this county. 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 



213 



Mr. and Mrs. Smith are members of the 
Congregational Church, as was also their son 
George A. 

THEODORE SCHRAMER, farmer, P. O. 
Turner, is a native of Prussia, born March 5, 
1839, son of John and Mary (Stiel) Schrarner. 
John Schramer, subject's father, emigrated to 
the United States in 1857, leaving Prussia in 
April, and arriving in Wheaton, this county, 
May 27, that year. He purchased 106 acres 
of land in Winfield Township, this county, 
paying $20 per acre for his farm, on which 
he died in i860; he had ten children — John, 
Peter, Helen, Lizzie, Nicholas, Kate, Theo- 
dore (subject), Martin, Nick, Jr., and John. 
Theodore remained with his father until the 
death of the latter, devoting his attention to 
farming. He married, October 26, 1863, 
Mary Leas, also a native of Prussia, born 
May 19, 18-13, daughter of John and Marga- 
ret (Schomer) Leas, she a daughter of Jacob 
Leas. The Leas family came to the United 
States and located in this county in 1851. 
Since his marriage Mr. Schramer has resided 
in this county, principally in this township. 
He began life with but little means, but by 
the energy and industry of himself and wife 
they have accumulated 3S6-| acres of land; 
they settled on their present farm in 1871, 
having previously, however, made several 
purchases and changes of location. Mr. and 
Mrs. Schramer have been blessed with six 
children — Mary, Peter, John. Nicholas, Lizzie 
and Susan. They are members of the Catho- 
lic Church. 

DANIEL STEARNS, farmer, P. O. Wayne; 
one of the old settlers of this township, 
was born October 26, 1816, in Benning- 
ton County. Vt. He was third son and fourth 
child born to Simeon and Irene (Newcomb) 
Stearns: he, born in Massachusetts in 1788, 
was a son of Capt. William and Joanna 
(Duncan) Stearns. Capt. William Stearns 



was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, 
and died in 1834 at the age of eighty. Sub- 
ject's father was a farmer and inn keeper, 
and died at the age of sixty-one. Mr. 
Stearns, our subject, was one of a family 
of nine children, all of whom grew to ma- 
turity. When he was twenty-four years old, 
he came West to this State and purchased 
land: he now has 135 acres, and carries on 
farming and dairying. Mr. and Mrs. Stearns 
have four children — William, who resides in 
Franklin County, Iowa; Franklin, in De 
Kalb County, 111. ; Jennie, wife of Newton 
Smith, and Zenas, at home. Mr. Stearns is a 
strong Republican. 

D. LOUIS WHEELER, farmer, P. O. 
Wayne, came to Illinois in September, 1845; 
remained in Quincy till the following spring, 
then went to Toulon, Stark Co., 111., and 
after staying there six months, came to this 
county in the fall of 1846. His father, 
Daniel Wheeler, came to this county soon 
after our subject came here, and bought 240 
acres of land; then returned East, and in the 
fall of 1847, returned to this county and settled 
permanently. Daniel Wheeler was born in 
Guilford, Vt., in October, 1797; his wife, 
Sadie D. Stewart, born May 1, 1802. died 
August 12, 1870; they had ten children, eight 
of whom grew to maturity — D. Louis (our sub- 
ject). Eleanora J., William S., Sylvanus M., 
AlmiraA.. Franklin S., Lucinda andPamelia. 
Eleanora married Myron Smith, of Elgin, 
111. ; Lucinda married George D. Sutton, of 
New York City; and Almira married L. Bene- 
dict, of Chicago. March 27. 1851. Mr. 
Wheleer married Julia A. Pierce, a native of 
Chautauqua County, N. Y., born March 3, 
1830, eldest daughter of Luther and Clarissa 
(Wells) Pierce, he born in January. 1800, 
she born in 1807. After his marriage. Mr. 
Wheeler remained in this township four 
years; then moved to Bremer County, Iowa, 



214 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



and after remaining there ten years, returned 
to this township in the spring of 1865, and 
has since remained here on his farm, con- 
sisting of 104 acres of good land. Mr. and 
Mrs. Wheeler have had three children, two 
of whom are living — Walter P., Warren 



Daniel. Mr. Wheeler is a member of the 
Congregational Church; his wife has been a 
member of the Free Methodist Episcopal 
Church for fourteen years; his father, Dan- 
iel Wheeler, was a supporter of the Demo- 
cratic party. 



BLOOMIiYGDA 

WILLIAM BATTEN, farmer, P. O. Mea- 
cham. Among the old settlers and substan- 
tial farmers in this township is Mr. Batten, 
who, for thirty-five years, has been closely 
identified with the interests of the county, 
and one of its stanch and valuable citizens. 
He was born December 12, 1812, in Devon- 
shire, England, son of John and Mary 
(Moore) Batten, who were the parents of 
three children — William, John and Elizabeth 
Jane. John resides in Canada, and Eliza- 
beth remains in England. Our subject came 
to America in 1847, arriving in Chicago June 
8 of the same year. From Chicago he came 
to this county, and went to work among the 
farmers, digging wells, ditches, etc., and, in 
fact, working at anything he could get that 
would bring him money, continuing in this 
way about four years. He then had saved 
some money, and purchased eighty acres of 
land. He afterward added forty acres, and 
has resided here since. He was married, 
when twenty-live years of age, to Mary Ann 
Baker, born about 1816, in Cornwall, Eng- 
land, daughter of James and Mariam (Neal) 
Baker. Mrs. Batten died about 1872, having 
borne eleven children, eight of whom are liv- 
ing — Mary, Mariam, John. James B., Eliza 
Ann, Jane, Charles G. and Sarah. Mary is 
the wife of James Pierce; Mariam is the wife 
of Charles Landon; James B. lives in Iowa; 
Eliza A. is the wife of James Lake; John, 
Charles and Sarah are at home. He has been 



LE TOWNSHIP. 

a member of the Methodist Church since 
1852, and Superintendent of the Sunday 
school for thirty years, having not missed live 
Sundays during that time. He had no school 
advantages; was bound out when eight years 
of age; but has been a School Director for 
fifteen years, and owes no man a penny. Is 
a stanch Republican. 

JOSEPH BUTLER, farmer, P. O. Bloom- 
ingdale, was born in Erie County, N. Y. . 
August 25, 1818, second son of John and 
Pattie (Wilson) Butler. John Butler was a 
native of Vermont, born in 1788, and died in 
New York at the age of eighty- four years. 
He was a Baptist, and in politics a Repub- 
lican. He had seven children — John, Jo- 
seph, Seth, Harvey, Sarah (deceased), Charles 
(deceased) and Ozias. Joseph came West in 
the spring of 1843; bought eighty acres of 
land, which he afterward sold and bought 
eighty acres more; sold it, and, in 1S50, 
came to his present place, and now owns 313 
acres, on which he has put all the substantial 
improvements. He gives his attention to 
stock-raising, in addition to general farming. 
In 1843, he married Abigail West, born near 
Sardinia, Erie Co., N. Y., in November, 
1812, daughter of Ashbel West. They have 
had nine children, six of whom are living — 
Sewall. farmer in De Kalb County, 111. ; Ira, 
at home; Ashbel, farmer inDe Kalb County, 
111. ; Elbert, at home; Judson and Delia. 
Those deceased were Elijah, died aged twen 



BLOOMINGDALE TOWNSHIP. 



217 



ty six; Gilbert, aged twenty-five; and James, 
who died July 6, 1882. Mr. Butler owes his 
success to his own thrift and energy. He is a 
Republican. 

GEORGE W. BARNES, farmer. P. O. 
Bloomingdale. is a native of Clinton County, 
N. Y., born June 4, 1831, and is the third 
son born to Jonathan and Mary (Gorham) 
Barnes. Jonathan Barnes, the youngest son 
of Jeremiah Barnes, was born in Massachu- 
setts March 24, 1793, and was a carpenter 
and joiner by trade; came West in the fall of 
1838; bought a claim of about three hundred 
and twenty acres of land, where he died 
March 25, 1874. He was a Congregational- 
iet; in politics, a Whig. His wife is still 
living. They had the following children: 
Eliza, wife of John M. Howe, of Milwaukee, 
Wis. ; Phoebe, wife of Philip Farnsworth. 
never came West; Noah, in Chicago; Thomas 
H. . died in California; Mary, deceased, wife 
of Franklin Talmadge, Wayne Township; 
George; Marie, wife of M. Pendleton, of 
Wayne Township. Our subject has always 
remained on the homestead farm, which con- 
sists of 240 acres, and devotes his attention 
to general farming and stork-raising. De- 
cember 22, 1858, he married Susan S. Dud- 
ley, born in Oswego County. N. Y. . in 1833, 
daughter of Asa and (Miss Alcott) Dudley. 
From this union nine children have been 
born — Jesse, Millie, Harry, Mabel, Newton, 
Maude, Robert, Ella and Alson. The Dud- 
ley family came to this county in the fall of 
1839. Mr. Barnes is a Republican. 

JACOB E. BENDER, farmer, P. O. 
Bloomingdale, was born in Hesse-Darmstadt. 
Germany, April 2, 1843. fifth son and sixth 
child of Michael and Elizabeth (Neuhardt) 
Bender. Michael, who was the son of Philip 
Bender, was born July 21, 1802; was a 
farmer by occupation; emigrated with his 
family to America in May. 1858; came to 



Bloomingdale Township and bought 165 
acres of land al $30 an acre, and has since 
resided here. His wife, daughter of Michael 
Neuhardt, was born in 1802. They had the 
following children: John, Philip. Henry. 
Conrad, Mary, Jacob E. and Emma. Our 
subject took charge of the homestead farm in 
1870, and has since managed it. The farm 
comprises 120 acres of land. Mr. Bender 
was married, December 26, 1870, to Wilhel- 
mina Iser, a native of Hesse-Darmstadt, Ger- 
many, born in April, 1837, daughter of John 
and Helen (Bender) Iser. She came to this 
county in 1868. By this union they have 
been blessed with six children — Emma, So- 
phia, Mina, John, Lucy and Katie. Mr. 
Bender assessed the township in 1882; has 
been Collector and School Director; is a 
member of the Evangelical Church; in poli- 
tics, a Democrat. 

JACOB CLAPSADDLE, Wheaton, was 
born on the German Flats, Herkimer Co., N. 
Y., May 20, 1808, eldest son of George A. 
and Nancy (Bellinger) Clapsaddle. George 
A. Clapsaddle was born in Herkimer County. 
N. Y. ; was a farmer by occupation, and died 
in December, 1862, aged seventy- eight years. 
His wife was a daughter of Peter F. Bellin- 
ger, a Revolutionary soldier, who was wound- 
ed in the shoulder in an engagement in that 
war. They had eight children — Elizabeth. 
Jacob. Mary, Peter G., George H, Andrew. 
Frederick and Nancy. The Clapsaddles are 
of German descent. Our subject's grand- 
father. Andrew Clapsaddle, served all through 
the Revolutionary war. The subject of this 
sketch left home at the age of twenty- four 
years. He was married, July 14, 1831, to 
Sally E. Terbening, a native of Herkimer 
Couuty, N. Y., born October 3, 1814, daugh- 
ter of Peter I. and Elizabeth (Brown) Ter- 
bening, he a son of Lucas Terbening, she a 
daughter of Valentine Browu. After his 



S18 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



marriage, Mr. Clapsaddle moved to Herkimer 
County, N. Y., and worked on land there for 
one season. The following year, he went to 
Onondaga County, N. Y., where he bought 
fifty acres of land, of which he cleared forty 
acres during the five years he lived on it. In 
May, 1844, he came to this county, bought 
240 acres of Government land, on which he 
has since resided, his farm now consisting of 
190 acres. By their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. 
Clapsaddle have been blessed with eight chil- 
dren — Kelburn and Jerome, in Kankakee 
County, 111. ; Harriet, wife of Hiram Kelsey, 
of Iowa; Sophia, in Travis County, Texas; 
Jacob P. , at home ; George A. , in Ida County, 
Iowa; Mary E. , wife of Horace Richardson, 
of Wheaton, 111. ; and Elvie, wife of James 
Steven, Kossuth County, Iowa. On the fif- 
tieth anniversary of the same, Mr. Clapsaddle 
celebrated his golden wedding. He has eight 
children, twenty-nine grandchildren and 
three great-grandchildren. He is a member 
of the Congregational Church. In politics, 
a stanch Republican. 

GEORGE F. DEIBERT, retired, Bloom- 
ingdale. Among the self-made men of this 
township is Mr. Deibert, who began in life 
with nothing except his hands and a resolu- 
tion to make for himself a home and a com- 
petence for his old age. His father died 
when he was but about three years of age, 
and from that time forward he was upon his 
own individual resources. He was born Jan- 
uary 4, 1821, in Schuylkill County, Penn., 
son of George Deibert and Maria Faust, both 
of whom were natives of Schuylkill County. 
In September, 1S44, Mr. Deibert came West, 
and made his location at Naperville, where 
he immediately began work, turning his at- 
tention to any honorable employment that 
promised a reasonable compensation. He 
made it a rule, if he could not get his own 
price for his labor, he accepted the best terms 



offered, and never ate the bread of idleness. 
In one year, $2.50 was all the money he 
spent. He was elected Constable while here 
at Naperville, and served until April, 1850, 
when he took a trip across the plains to Cali- 
fornia, where he engaged in mining, remain- 
ing here until the spring of 1854. when he 
returned to the county and came to Bloom- 
inardale and engaged in business with his 
brother, D. F., under the firm name of Dei- 
bert & Brother, and carried on a general store. 
This association lasted until 1861, when he 
sold out to his brother, and, for one year, 
was out of active business. He then asso- 
ciated with J. R. Dunning in the mercantile 
business; firm name was Dunning & Deibert, 
which copartnership lasted until August 9, 
1879, when he sold out to. his partner, and 
since has been retired, and resides in the town 
in the peaceful enjoyment of life's savings, 
having secured what he set out to accomplish 
when he came to the State. He has been 
twice married — first time, in August, 1844, to 
Susan Dewald, a native of Schuylkill County, 
Penn. , daughter of John Dewald. She died 
in 1849, leaving no children. In October, 
1853, he married Sarah, the sister of his first 
wife. By her he had four children, three 
living — Milton G., Ida M. and Mary. Ida 
M. resides in Greene County, Iowa, wife of 
Sherman E. Kinney. Stanch Republican. 

J. R. DUNNING, merchant. Blooming- 
dale, born March 14, 1822, in Hamilton 
County, N. Y. , son of Justice Dunning and 
Lorinda Rich, both natives of New York State. 
The paternal grandfather of Jonathan Rich 
Dunning was Amos, who served in the war 
of the Revolution. Our subject was raised 
in the county where he was born, and, upon 
coming to maturity, he engaged in mercantile 
pursuits, starting a store in Rome, where he 
continued in business until he came to this 
place, arriving in the town of Bloomingdale, 



BLOOMINGDALE TOWNSHIP. 



219 



July, I860, where he subsequently purchased 
the interest of Dr. Sedgewick, and has since 
been engaged in merchandising, and been 
Postmaster since 1S6'J. January IS, 1844, 
he married Harriet Pendleton, who was born 
December 25. 1825, daughter of Benjamin C. 
Pendleton, who was born November 11, 17'J4. 
in Westerly. R. I., and was present at the 
bombardment of Stonington. October 29, 
1818, he married Asenath, who was born July 
28, 17 ( JS. in Hopkinton. R. I. She was the 
youngest daughter of Saunders Langworthy, 
to whom thirteen children were born. The 
Pendleton family came to this county and 
settled in Bloomingdale Township in IN 47. 
His death occurred March 12, 1877; his wife 
died May 13, 1871. They raised six chil- 
dren — Benjamin F.. Mercy L., Etherliuda 
D.. Harriet E., Mason M. and Mary J. Mr. 
Dunning has four children — Calvin L., Al- 
bert D., Francis H. and Estelle; Calvin L., 
in Chicago; Estelle, of South Park, wife of 
George H. Berger; Francis H. and Albert D. , 
at home. A. D. has one of the best selected 
libraries in the county. 

JOSIAH FRENCH, Ontarioville, Cook 
County, was born March 1, 1813, in East 
Salisbury, Mass., son of Josiah and Hannah 
(French) French, she having same name, but 
being of a different family. They had nine 
children, seven of whom are living. Our sub- 
ject left Boston April 21, 1831, and arrived at 
Carrollton May 25, coming by canal, steamboat 
and wagon. In the fall of 1833, he moved 
to Jersey County, and lived there until 1856, 
when he came here. He lived also eighteen 
months in Galena. He came from his native 
State with a man with whom he learned the 
trade of carpenter. He first bought 160 
acres of land in Jersey County, and then 620 
acres unimproved. He now owns over three 
hundred acres of good land. April 20, 1838, 
he married Dollie Adams, born January 26, 



1818, in Ohio, daughter of N. B. and Sallie 
(Bliss) Adams, both natives of Vermont. 
The Adams family came West in the spring 
of 1833, to the southern part of the State, 
and were among the first settlers of Jersey 
County. Mr. French, by this marriage, has 
four children — Joseph G. , Josiah N. , Han- 
nah M. and Orville A. Joseph G. is in 
Nuckolls County, Neb. ; Josiah is in Iowa, a 
farmer in Delaware County; Hannah M., 
wife of G. W. Moss, Chicago; and Orville 
A., in Iowa, near Iowa Falls. Mr. French 
was raised a Congregationalist, and is a Re- 
publican. He began a poor man, and has 
built up his own fortune. 

R. W. GATES, mechanic, Bloomingdale, 
ex-soldier and one of the inventors of Du 
Page, was born October 15, 1835, in Tomp- 
kins County, N. Y., son of Levi Gates, a na- 
tive of Worcester County, Mass.. where he 
was born in 1800, and subsequently removed 
to Tompkins County and married Nancy 
Gould, a native of North Adams. She bore 
him seven children, all of whom are now liv- 
ing. The eldest is Elmira, wife of Henry 
Haddock, of Elgin. Skillman, the eldest son, 
resides in St. Louis, Mo. Next in order 
comes Robert W. Sarah resides in Chicago, 
wife of John Morrison. Helen resides in 
Madison County, Neb. , wife of M. J. Davis. 
Charles resides in Elgin. Charlotte, the 
youngest, resides in Batavia, this State, wife 
of John Hugitt. Robert W. is the only 
member of the family residing in Du Page, 
and was nineteen years of age when he came to 
this county with his parents. His father was a 
carpenter, with whom he worked, and learned 
the trade under his instruction. After at- 
taining his majority, he began business on 
his own account. In September. 1861. he 
enlisted as a private in Company D, Eighth 
Illinois Cavalry, and served until after the 
close of the war, receiving his discharge July, 



220 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



1865. Six months after his enlistment, he 
was promoted to Quartermaster Sergeant of 
the regiment, and, in the winter of 1863, he 
was promoted to First Lieutenant, and had 
charge of the Quartermaster's Department of 
his regiment. His term of service was filled 
in the Army of the Potomac, where he was 
assigned. After his return from the service, 
he built and ran a cheese factory for three 
years at Itasca. Since that time, he has been 
a resident of Bloomingdale, and engaged in 
wagon-making and blacksrni thing combina- 
tion shops, and has since conducted the same. 
In 1869, he invented the potato-digger, which 
has had an extensive sale, it being the most 
Bucessful machine of the kind ever invented. 
In 1874, he was elected Justice of the Peace, 
and has since been re-elected. In August, 
1865. he married Laura Landon, who was 
born in this township, daughter of Lewis E. 
Landon and Maria Farnum. He has four 
children — Nellie, Allen, Harry and Eugene. 
Mr. Gates has, since his majority, been affil-- 
iatedwith the Republican party, and a strong 
advocate of the temperance cause. 

HENRY HOLSTEIN, miller. Blooming- 
dale, was born in Hanover, Germany, Decem- 
ber 22, 1821, eldest son of John H. and 
Maria (Boss) Holstein. John H. was a 
farmer, and died in his native land in 1862, 
aged sixty-five years. He had two sons and 
five daughters — Louisa, Fred and our subject. 
Louisa is the wife of Louis Homeir, of Ad- 
dison Township, and Fred resides with her. 
Henry was raised a farmer, and remained 
with his parents until fourteen years of age, 
when he went to learn the miller's trade. In 
the spring of 1849, he came to America, ar- 
riving in Baltimore in the latter part of May. 
The next month, be came to Addison Town- 
ship, where he worked at farming, and after- 
ward went to Cook County. The next year, 
returned to Addison and rented land from 



Deitrich Stuckmann, where he continued 
thirteen years. He then came to Blooming- 
dale and bought 1 14 acres of land, costing 
$2,600; lived there about twelve years, and 
then came to where he now is, one-fourth 
mile south of the village of Bloomingdale, 
where he bought the old mill owned by Col- 
bury, and ran the same until 1872, when he 
built a new mill, and has since run the same. 
In 1879. he built the steam mill at Roselle, 
and has three run of buhrs. He is also 
(1882) putting in machinery to manufacture 
the "patent process " flour. April 15, 1845, 
he was married to Louisa Foltmer, born May 
4, 1821, and who died May 16, 1880, having 
borne nine children, only three of whom are 
living — Frank, Matilda and Caroline. Ma- 
tilda is the wife of Fred Boner, and Frank 
runs the mill at Roselle. Mr. Holstein is a 
self-made man. He began poor, and has ac- 
quired all he has by his own industry. 

H. O. HILLS, Bloomingdale, was born 
June 26, 1818, in Vernon, Oneida Co., N. 
Y. , son of Allen and Almeda (Collins) Hills. 
Allen Hills was born in Connecticut April 26, 
1791, and died in April, 1862. His wife was 
born December 28, 1794, died February 28, 
1863. They had five children — Erasmus O. , 
in Hyde Park, 111.; H. O. , our subject; Nu- 
bria C, at Hyde Park; Almeda P., married 
R. Stevens, of Wheaton, 111., always lived in 
this county; and Huet B. , lived in this 
county until his death, in August, 1881. 
Allen Hills was a son of Huet Hills, who had 
twelve children, six sons and six daughters. 
Our subject lived on the home farm till he was 
twenty-four years of age, and, in June, IS 12, 
came "West to Illinois; worked that summer 
on a farm his father had bought in Bloom- 
ingdale Township, and, in the fall of the 
same year, began driving a stage from Chi- 
cago to Peru, which occupation he followed 
for two vears. He has since given his atten- 



BLOOMINGDALE TOWNSHIP. 



221 



tion to farming, and has a farm of ISO acres. 
He clerked six years for Deibert & Bros. 
December 7, 1842, he married Lorena May- 
nard, born in Potsdam, N. Y., December 31, 
1818, daughter of Elias and Lorena May- 
nai'd. Elias Maynard and family came to 
Illinois about the year 1837, and settled in 
this township. He had five children — Ruth, 
wife of Orin Lilley; Lorena, Mrs. H. O. 
Hills; George, deceased; Hiram, residing in 
Austin, 111. ; and Esther, wife of H. Brun- 
son Hills, of Wheaton. Mr. and Mrs. H. 
O. Hills are the parents of nine children — 
Sabrina E., wife of O. A. Verbeck; Helen 
J., wife of Harrison Muzzy; Allen E., Huet 
B. . Charles H. , Dewitt C. ; Lorena M. , wife 
of Thomas Lake; Edwin O. and Fannie B. , 
all living in this county. Mr. Hills was 
formerly a Whig, now a Republican. His 
parents were members of the Congregational 
Church. His father was formerly a Demo- 
crat, afterward a Republican, and served as 
Justice of the Peace several terms. 

MOSES K. HOYT, Bloomingdale, was 
born in Plattsburg, N. Y., April 12, 1817, 
fifth son and sixth child of Moses and Sallie 
(Piper) Hoyt, natives of New Hampshire. 
Moses Hoyt was a lumberman, and shipped 
lumber to Quebec. He came with his fam- 
ily to this county in the fall of 1837, locat- 
ed on 160 acres of land, where he resided 
until his death, which occurred in 1800. He 
was a Whig. His wife died several years 
previous. They had seven children — George 
W.. who settled at Dundee ; Hiram and 
Charles H. . who located in Addison Town- 
ship; Sallie, who married Thomas H. Thomp- 
son, of Dundee; Louis L., who resided in 
Plattsburg, N. Y. ; Moses K. ; and Faunie 
M. , wife of Alfred Rich, of Dakota. All are 
deceased save Moses K. and Fannie M. Our 
subject has followed farming since he came 
to this county. His farm consists of 200 



acres of land. In the fall of 1843, he mar- 
ried Sarah Butler, born in Erie County, N, 
Y. , daughter of John and Pattie (Wilson) 
Butler. Mrs. Hoyt died in 1856. The chil- 
dren by this marriage were Martha, wife of 
Jerome Lester, of Cook County, 111. ; Ellen, 
wife of George Wilson, died in Iowa leaving 
one son, Charles; and Walter, died aged 
seventeen. Mr. Hoyt married, June 29, 
1857, Nancy Hopkins, a native of Windham, 
Vt. , born in 1820, daughter of David and 
Hannah (Cobb) Hopkins, natives of New 
Hampshire, who moved to New York State 
when Mrs. Hoyt was seven years of age. By 
this union they have been blessed with three 
children — Llewellyn, married and settled in 
Franklin County, Iowa : C. G. and Moses 
K. ; one deceased. Mr. Hoyt is a Republican. 
JOHN H. HARMENING, Bloomingdale, 
was born in Hesse Cassel, Germany, Decem- 
ber 31, 1826, son of John Henry and Sophia 
(Pfingsten) Harmening. John Henry Har- 
dening, son of Fred Harmening, came with 
his family to America in the spring of 1865, 
and came West to Chicago. He died in Sep- 
tember, 1871. His wife, who was a daugh- 
ter of John Pfingsten, died in Germany. 
They had live children — Christian, who died 
in 1S59; Mena and Charlotte, in Germany; 
Hannah, who died in Germany; and John H. 
Our subject, after coming to this country, 
worked in a brickyard, drove a team, farmed, 
and kept a hotel at 112 West Lake street, 
Chicago, for some time. He then came to 
this township and bought 310 acres of land, 
on which he has put all the improvements, 
set out trees, hedges, etc. He married. April 
2, 1859, Dorothea Thies, a native of Han- 
over, Germany, born February 11. 184J, 
daughter of John and Charlotte (Prinne) 
Thies. By this marriage they have been 
blessed with four children - Henry, Sophia, 
Matilda and William. 



222 



BIOGRAPHICAL 



IRVING EDWARD INGRAHAM, farmer, 
P. O. Bloomingdale, was born in Essex. Chit- 
tenden Co., Vt., November 22, 1850, eldest 
son of Artemus A. and Lucinda (Goodhue) 
Ingraham. Artemus A. Ingraham came with 
his family to this county in the spring of 
1869, bought 380 acres of land, on which he 
lived till the fall of 1881, when he moved to 
Wheaton. Our subject received a good com- 
mon-school education, and afterward attended 
Wheaton College for two years. January 1, 
1873, he married Francelia Deibert, a native 
of this county, and adopted daughter of 
Daniel F. Deibert, one of the prominent men 
of this township. Mr. Ingraham has taken 
charge of the farm since the fall of 1881. 
He runs the largest dairy in the township. 
He and his wife are members of the Baptist 
Church. He is also a member of the Tem- 
perance Union. 

CHAS. B. KELLEY, farmer and stock- 
raiser, P. O. Wheaton. was born in Milton 
Township March 6, 1853. on the homestead 
farm, second son living of Daniel Kelley. 
He was reared on the farm, and received good 
school advantages. April 14, 1879, he 
formed a matrimonial alliance with Maggie 
Pottage. In 1877, he purchased the farm he 
now owns, consisting of 100 acres, which lies 
in the southern part of the townshiji, and 
since bis marriage he has been a resident of 
the township, and been identified with its 
interests as a farmer and breeder of thorough- 
bred Merino sheep. Is a member of the 
Baptist Church, and a Republican. No chil- 
dren. 

FREDERICK LANGHORST, Roselle. 
Among the principal business men of Ro- 
sell is Mr. Langhorst. He was born Febru- 
ary 7. 1840, in Germany, the third son and 
fourth child born to Christopher and Doro- 
thea (Turner) Langhorst, he born in 1801, 
she burn in the kingdom of Hanover, daugh- 



ter of Henry Turner. Our subject was reared 
on a farm, and came to this country in 1858, 
when eighteen years of age, and to Cook 
County shortly afterward, where he worked 
among the farmers for about three years. In 
1863, he went to Chicago and learned the 
baker's trade, but subsequently returned to 
Cook County and purchased a thrashing ma- 
chine, and for eight years engaged in the 
business of thrashing grain. About 1866, 
he purchased 300 acres of land in Palatine 
Township, and engaged in farming, also 
doing business in Chicago for a seed firm. 
In 1873, he removed to Chicago, and re- 
mained there about one year, in the grocery, 
flour and feed business, at the same time car- 
rying on his farm. In 1875, he located at 
Roselle and engaged in the grain business. 
He has built several houses, and done much 
toward improvement. Since he came here, 
he has been engaged in the grain, flour, coal 
and feed business, and in buvino- and seilino- 
stock. He has also an elevator at Harper. 
November 6, 1864, he married Hannah Mey- 
ers, born on the ocean October 22, 1847, 
daughter of Charles and Corlene (Hartmann) 
Meyers, both natives of Hanover, and sis 
children have been born to them — Mary, 
March 28, 1867; William, May 22, 1869; 
Freddie. October 3, 1871; Sophia, August 
17, 1S73; Henry. December 3, 1875; and 
Annie, October 24, 1878; the last two being 
born in Roselle. In 1872. Mr. Langhorst 
made a trip to the old country and brought 
over his parents, but the father died August 
21, 1875. and the mother November 26, 1876. 
He is a member of the Evangelical Church. 
CHARLES LAWRENCE, retired farmer, 
Meacham, was born November 11, 1804, in 
Cornwall, England, son of John and Mary 
(Shaplin) Lawrence. He emigrated to Amer- 
ica in 1844, and located in Schaumberg. Cook 
County, and purchased land and engaged in 



BLOOMINGDALE TOWNSHIP. 



223 



farming, where he continued for many years, 
when he finally located in this township, and 
has since been retired. He married Grace 
Tinnemore, who was born in 1806, in En- 
gland, daughter of Hugh Tinnemore. She 
died in 1868, having borne him five children 
— Charles, who resides in Iowa; Ann. mar- 
ried Joseph Baker, deceased; Mary, Henry 
F. . and James, who is farming in this town- 
ship. He was born in Schaumberg. Cook 
County, April 15. 1850. where he remained 
on the farm until he came to this county. 
He engaged in business for himself after he 
became of age. In 1881, he purchased the 
Col. Meacham farm, consisting of 250 acres, 
and is engaged in farming and dairying. 

JAMES PIERCE, Postmaster, merchant 
and depot agent, Meacham. is a native of 
England, born February 24. 1841. eldest 
son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Sandercock) 
Pierce. Thomas Pierce was one of the early 
settlers of this township; came here in the 
summer of 1842; bought 200 acres of Gov- 
ernment land, on which he lived till the time 
of his death, having increased the farm to 
(i n i acres, which he divided among his 
children. He had five children — James, 
Maria J., Henry. John T. and Charles. 
James S. remained on the homestead farm 
until he attained his majority, then worked 
out for some time. February 1, 1863, he 
married Mary, daughter of William Batten. 
They have two children — Horace Elmer and 
Ella Maria. After his marriage. Mr. Pierce 
rented the homestead farm for five years, 
tin 'u bought a farm on Section 11. where he 
lived for ten years. In the winter of 1878, 
he came to Meacham Station, opened up a 
store, and has since been Postmaster and de- 
pot agent there. He owns 170 acres of land 
in Sections 10 and 11, and 100 acres on Sec- 
tion 2. He is a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church; in politics, a Republican. ' 



HENRY PIERCE, farmer. P. O. Mea- 
cham, was born in this township October 14, 
1845, the second son and third child born to 
Thomas and Elizabeth Pierce, whe came to 
Du Page about the year 1840. Thomas 
Pierce first lived about one year south of 
Bloomingdale; afterward bought land in the 
northeast part of the township, now owned by 
Charles Pierce. Here he died July 11, 1880. 
His wife is still living. They raised five 
children— James, Maria, Henry, Thomas and 
Charles. Maria died in 1875. wife of Charles 
W. Geary. All the others are young. 
Henry, the second son, was raised on the 
farm, and was married, January 6, 1869, to 
Emma Rathburn, born in this township, the 
second daughter of Rowland and Eliza (Mose- 
ly) Rathburn. After marriage, he remained 
on the homestead two years, and then built 
where he now lives, the land having belonged 
to his father. He has 1 00 acres, and has put 
all the improvements on the fai'm. He has 
four sons and one daughter — Arthur - R. . Al- 
bert T. , Nellie M. . Henry Clyde and Chester 
G. Mrs. Pierce is a member of the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church and he is identified with 
the temperance movement. Is now serving 
his sixth year as Commissioner of Highways, 
and is a Republican. 

FRANK W. PIERCE, farmer, P. O. Mea- 
cham, was born in Addison Township, this 
county. July 27. 1846, on the land first set- 
tled by bis father. He is the eldest child of 
Charles and Margaret Pierce. Charles 
Pierce was born in Cornwall, England, in 1810; 
emigrated to America and came to this county 
in 1843; bought eighty acres of land, on 
which he remained some time, then bought 
100 acres of land where Itasca now stands, 
and. in 1869, came to this township, and 
lived here till the spring of 1882, when he 
removed to Elgin. 111. He had two chil- 
dren. Charles AV. and Susan. Mrs. Samuel 



2U 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



Samuels, of Elgin. Frank W. was married, 
December 1, 1867, to Mary Ericson, born in 
Wisconsin July 6, 1849, who has borne him 
two children — Jennie and Nelson. Since his 
marriage, Mr. Pierce has had charge of the 
farm, which contains 130 acres of land. He 
is a Republican, and a supporter of the tem- 
perance cause. 

JOHN T. PIERCE, farmer, P. O. Mea- 
cham. was born May 8, 1850, third son and 
fourth child of Thomas Pierce. He was 
raised on the farm, and, on attaining his ma- 
jority, rented land of his father in this town- 
ship. He married, January 22, 1874, Hattie 
A. Baxter, born in Wiufield Township, this 
county, March 1, 1854, second daughter of 
John and Sarah (Sharp) Baxter, residents of 
this county, who came here from England 
about the year 1S48. After his marriage, he 
located on his father's farm, known as the 
Daniel McGraw place, where he remained 
until March 25, 1881, locating on the George 
Meacham farm, containing now 193 acres, 
160 acres of the Meacham farm, the remain- 
ing thirty-three acres of the Trewin farm, on 
which he has good improvements. He car- 
ries on a dairy in ad ition to farming. By 
their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Pierce have 
been blessed with two children — Eddie Til- 
ton, born June 30, 1S76; and Clarence Ray- 
mond, born April 11, 1880. Mr. Pierce is a 
Republican. 

CHARLES PIERCE, farmer, P. O. Mea- 
cham, was born in this township February 
24, 1857, and has always resided here. He 
is the youngest child and son of Thomas 
Pierce. Thomas Pierce was born in 1S07; 
came with his family to this county in July, 
1841, and bought land of the Government. 
He died July 11, 1880. His wife, a native 
of Cornwall, England, was born February 
20, 1818, daughter of John Sandercock. The 
subject of this sketch, when he attained his 



majority, rented the homestead for one year, 
and his father gave him eighty acres of land. 
In April, 1881, Mr. Pierce married Jennie 
Batten, a native of Devonshire, England, 
born October 10, 1862, daughter of John and 
Tamzer (Rundle). From this union they 
have one son, born August 17, 1882. Mr. 
Pierce has a farm of 170 acres of land. 

W. KIRK PATRICK, deceased, was born 
February 16, 1824, inTruxton, Cortland Co., 
N. Y. , son of Nathaniel and Penelope (Pot- 
ter) Patrick, he born February 10, 1785, in 
Stillwater, Saratoga Co., N. Y. ; she born in 
1793, daughter of Nathaniel Potter. To 
Nathaniel and Penelope Patrick were born 
fourteen children, twelve of whom grew to 
maturity — Stephen, Elias, Fannie E., H. B. , 
Albert, Charles, "William K, Lydia, Mary, 
Rachel, Alfred, Elizabeth. Stephen resides 
in Cortland County, N. Y. , and has repre- 
sented his county in the Legislature of his 
State; Lydia married Alanson P. Benson, of 
Onondaga County, N. Y. Those who settled 
in this county were William K, H. B., Fan- 
nie (Mrs. J. B. Hull); Elizabeth, wife of 
Robert Patrick ; Charles, Richard, Alfred 
and Eliza settled in McHenry County ; Alfred 
is a farmer; Mary married Charles Angle, 
and removed to Topeka, Kan. W. K. Pat- 
rick came West in 1850. He was raised on 
a farm, and his father died in 1844. Our 
subject, being the eldest son at home, took 
charge of the farm until he came West in 
1850. The paternal ancestors of Mr. Patrick 
emigrated from Scotland to the North of Ire- 
land during the reign of James I, and the 
Patricks landed in New York in 1763. Our 
subject married, February 16, 1847, Mary L. 
Knowles, born in Chenango County, N. Y. , 
June 17, 1827, daughter of Daniel and Lo- 
vina (Reynolds) Knowles, he born in 1785, in 
Rhode Island, she born in 1797, daughter of 
Benjamin and Sarah (Briggs) Reynolds, who 



BLOOMINGDALE TOWNSHIP. 



225 



removed to Chenango County about 1S02. 
To Benjamin and wife were born nine chil- 
dren, who grew up. Daniel Reynolds and 
wife removed to Cortland County in 3 837, 
and died there. To Daniel and wife were 
born three children — Mary, Darius D. and 
Sarah, the last two deceased. Prior to Mr. 
Patrick's coming West, he bought 100 acres 
of land, and afterward added more, and made 
several changes, but finally settled where he 
lived until his death, May 8, 1882. He was 
a Republican; served as Assessor and Super- 
visor several terms. About 1858, he engaged 
in sheep-raising, and, later, was a large 
breeder of the same. He was a liberal sup- 
porter of the Gospel, although not a member 
of any church, and always a helper of the 
poor and needy. To Mr. Patrick and wife 
were born nine children. Those who grew 
to maturity were Delia, wife of C. B. Field, 
of Freeport, 111. ; Ellen, wife of A. E. Hills, 
of Lombard ; Florence, Wilbur K., Jr., 
Frances, Charles, Abraham L. and Jesse. 
Mrs. Patrick is a member of the Congrega- 
tional Church. 

ALFRED S. PATRICK, farmer, P. O. 
Wheaton, was born on the homestead farm, 
where he now lives, September 8, 1841, and 
is the third and youngest child of H. B. and 
Clarissa (Frisby) Patrick. Mr. Patrick was 
raised on the farm, and has always followed 
farming. He also devotes his attention to 
feeding cattle. January 1, 1875, he married 
Ida W. McClester, born in Long Meadow, 
Mass., February 13, 1819, youngest daughter 
of Robert and Mary (Field) McClester, he a 
native of Massachusetts, of Lish descent, she 
a relative of Cyrus W. Field. The McClester 
family came West to Plainfield, Will Co., 
111. , in 1853. Robert McClester, who was a 
master mechanic in Grovernment employ, died 
in Chattanooga, Tenn. , in the second year of 
the late war. His widow is still living. 



Mrs. Patrick has one brother and one sister, 
George and Elizabeth (Mrs. Charles Hoag, of 
Plainfield). Herjparents were members of 
the Congregational Church. 

ROWLAND RATHBURN, Prospect Park, 
was born near Rome, Oneida Co., N. Y., Au- 
gust 18, 1817, and is a son of Acors and 
Sarah (Peckham) Rathburn, natives of Rhode 
Island. Acors Rathburn was one of a fam- 
ily of six, born to Burden Rathburn, of Rhode 
Island. Acors Rathburn learned the hatter's 
trade, and, after his marriage to Sarah Peck- 
ham, daughter of Judge W. Peckham, he re- 
moved to Oneida County, N. Y., where he 
was one of the early settlers. He followed 
farming there till his death. He had a fam- 
ily of twelve children, all of whom grew to 
maturity — William, Solomon; Sarah, resid- 
ing at Oak Park, 111., wife of Daniel Mory; 
Wells, Joshua, Peckham and Mercy, all three 
in New York; Dorcas, wife of Henry Thomas, 
of Lone Rock, Wis. ; Perry, in Atlantic, 
Iowa; Benjamin, also in Iowa; May A., Row- 
land and James. The latter went to Califor- 
nia, and has not been heard from for several 
years. The subject of this sketch remained 
with his parents on the farm till he was 
twenty-two years of age. In the spring of 
1814, he came to Illinois, and in September 
of that year, purchased, at $1.50 an acre, a 
claim of eighty acres of unimproved land, 
where be still resides, having now, however, 
100 acres of well -improved land. He has 
been thrice married. In January, 1840, he 
married Elisa Mosely, a native of Rensselaer 
County, N. Y., daughter of Charles Mosely. 
She died leaving four children — Joshua, Cor- 
nelia, Emma and George. His second wife, 
Harriet Mosely, sister of his first wife, died 
leaving one child, Eliza. His third wife was 
Josephine Smith, a native of Vermont, and 
daughter of Alvin Smith, one of the early 
settlers in this county. By this last marriage 



226 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



he has six childlen — Acors, Sarah, Carrie, 
John. Richard and Warren. He is a mem- 
ber of the Society of Friends. Of his chil- 
dren, Joshua served four years during the 
late war, in the Thirty -sixth Illinois Cavalry, 
and died after leaving the service; Cornelia 
resides in Chicago, wife of George Meacham, 
lumber merchant; Emma is the wife of Henry 
Pierce, of this township; George is a farmer 
in Ellsworth County, Kan. ; and the remain- 
der of the family are at home. 

WILLIAM RATHJE. farmer, P. O. 
Bloomingdale, has been a resident of this 
county since October 23, 1846, and of this 
township since the spring of 1847. He was 
born October 13, 1833, in Rodenwald, Amt 
Nuestadt, in province of Hanover. His par- 
ents were Frederick Rathje and Sophia Frol- 
ich. His father was born December 20, 1799, 
and had eight children born to him, whose 
names, in order of their birth, are Louisa, 
Frederick, Henry, Mary, William, Louis, 
Henry and Sophia. Henry died in the old 
country; Mary resides in Addison Township, 
wife of Henry Buchholz; Louisa married 
Fred Wakenhauer, of same township; Fred- 
erick resides in Peotone, Will County, this 
State; Sophia resides in Corvallis, Benton 
Co., Ore., wife of Fred H. Fisher. William, 
when he came to this county, resided the first 
year with his sister, Mrs. Wakenhauer, in 
Addison Township. The following year, he 
came to this township. He hired'out for six 
months to Horace Benjamin, at $3 per month. 
The year following (in 1848), his father came, 
and bought 120 acres of land, which 
William now owns, which was obtained of 
Cyrus Kellogg, at a cost of $10 per acre, 
there being but little improvements on the 
place at the time. Since that time, Mr. 
Rathje has been a constant resident at the 
place. His mother died in 1843. His fa- 
ther resides with him on the farm. William 



has given his attention to farming pursuits. 
In 1856, he had the misfortune to lose his 
right arm while working with a threshing 
machine. He has always been a stanch and 
reliable Republican; has served as Justice of 
the Peace for twelve years, and, since 1873, 
has been Supervisor of the township, except 
1877, and in all his official relations he has 
maintained the dignity and uprightness which 
characterize the true man. He has 258 acres 
of land in the township, and 480 acres in 
Kossuth County, Iowa. March 20, 1863, he 
married Louisa Ehlers, who was born in the 
same place as himself, February, 1841, 
daughter of Fred Ehlers and Maria Meyer; 
has eight children — three sons and five daugh- 
ters — Emma, Mena, Bertha, Annie, Sophia, 
Fred, Louis and Willie. Member of the 
Evangelical Church. 

JOSIAH STEVENS, Bloomingdale, is now 
the oldest living male resident of Blooming- 
dale Township, having come here with his 
parents in the spring of 1835. He was born 
July 10, 1832, in Lenox, Madison Co., N. 
Y. , third son and seventh child of Noah and 
Lois (Walker) Stevens. The Stevens family 
came originally from England, four brothers 
of the family coming out in the Mayflower. 
Noah Stevens, a farmer by occupation, son of 
Thomas Stevens, was born in Sangerfield, 
Oneida Co., N. Y., November 16, 1797; was 
married, November 9, IS 18, to Lois Walker, 
a native of Hinesburg, Vt., born Jan. 21, 
1801, daughter of Asa Walker. By this 
union were born the following children: 
Sibylla, born February, 11, 1820, wife of D. 
D. Noble, of Nebraska; Thomas R. , born 
March 25. 1822, a farmer, died at Wheaton, 
111., in March, 1882; Leonora, born April 
3, 1824, married C. W. Kellogg, of this 
township, and died September 24. 1875; Lois, 
born May 19, 1826, wife of Henry Hatch, of 
Iowa; Lavina, born June 20, 1828, wife of 



ADDISON TOWNSHIP. 



237 



E. A. Herrick, of Winnebago. 111. ; Ethel H., 
bom March 25, 1831; Josiah; Alvira L., 
born December 31, 1835. lives with Josiah; 
Adeline D.. born June 28, 1838, wife of Ed- 
ward Herrick. of Iowa; and Mary A., born 
November '25. 1840, wife of Asa W. Farr. of 
Iowa. All grew to maturity save Ethel H. 
Noah Stevens came West with his family and 
settled on a claim of 175 acres, on which Jo- 
siah now resides, and remained there till his 
death, which occurred September 5. 1862. 
He was a Deacon in the Baptist Church, and 
one of the organizers of that church here, 
their meetings being held in his house, which 
was the home of the ministers. In politics, 
he was a Whig, and later a Republican. His 
wife died February 4, 1863. Our subject 
married, March 5, 1855. Caroline E. Barber, 
born in Castleton, Rutland Co., Vt., October 
5. 1829. daughter of Simeon and Lorain H. 
(King) Barber, natives of Benson. "Vt. , he a 



son of Levi and Rebecca (Hinman) Barber. 
The Barber family came West in 1853 and 
settled in Bloomingdale Township, this 
county. Simeon Barber now lives with his 
son Henry; his wife died in July, 1875. 
They had three children— Caroline E.. Mrs. 
Stevens; Henry F., residing in Wayne Town- 
ship, this county; and Mary L., wife of I. B. 
Kinney, of Henry County, Mo. Mr. Stevens 
has had charge of the farm since 1853. He 
now rents the place. Since 1867, he has kept 
a public house, the Farmers' Home, and, 
since the spring of 1875, he has been en- 
gaged in the construction of tubular wells, 
keeping four teams constantly on the road. 
Mr. and Mrs. Stevens have been blessed with 
three children- -Hattie L. , Addie L. (wife of 
E. W. Lester, of Addison Township) and 
Myrta A. Mr. Stevens has been Constable 
since 1865. and has served for nine or ten 
years as Township Trustee. 



ADDISON TOWNSHIP, 



WILLIAM ASCHE, farmer, P. 0. Elm- 
hurst, is one of the young settlers of Addison 
Township; his father, William Asche, was a 
native of Hanover, where he was born Febru- 
ary 26, 1809, and emigrated to America short- 
ly after the Fischer family came. He worked 
on the canal in Chicago for some time, finally 
locating in Addison Township, where his son 
William now resides, making his purchase 
July 10, 1844. May 12, 1842, he married 
Mena Fischer, a native of Hanover, born Oc- 
tob )i 7, 1823. daughter of H. F. Fischer, who 
for several years operated the wind-mill in the 
southeast part of the township. William 
Asche, Sr. , died March 18, 1876; his wife in 
November, 1858; six children were born to 
them, live coming to the years of maturity, 
Dora, Fred, Emma and William are now liv- 



ing. Dora resides in Chicago, wife of Fred 
Wassaman; Fred resides at Lemont, t In- 
state; Emma is the wife of Henry Kay, and 
resides at Blue Island near Chicago. Will- 
iam, our subject, who now resides on the 
homestead farm, was born January 7, 1854, 
and, being 'he youngest, he has always been 
on the home farm. April 16, 1874, he mar- 
ried Louisa, eldest daughter of August Graue; 
He has five children — August, Edward, Ma- 
tilda, Albert and Ada. 

WILLIAM HENRY BOSKE, farmer, P. 
O. Bensenville. resides at Kaler's Grove, 
which took its name from Barney Kaler, who 
married Mrs. Boske, the mother of William 
Henry; her maiden name was Mary Flhorn, 
whose fir^t husband was Henry Boske, and 
by him had two children- — Sophia and Will- 



228 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



iam Henry, who was born January 4, 1823, 
in Ehrenburg, in the Kingdom of Hanover; 
his father died in 1827. William Henry 
emigrated to this State with his mother and 
stepfather in 1834. William Henry left 
home after his stepfather's settlement here, 
and went to Chicago, remaining there until 
he was about eighteen years of age, when he 
returned to this township, where he has since 
remained. June 2, 1848, he married Mary 
Charlotte Schmidt, who was born February 
19, 1829, in Londesbergen, in the Kingdom 
of Hanover, daughter of Henry Schmidt. 
Nine children have been born to him, eight 
of whom are living. Sophia was born August 
16, 1849, and resides in Bloomingdale Town- 
ship, wife of Marquardt; Louisa W. , born 
November 20, 1851, and resides in this town- 
ship, wife of Fred Bucholz; Anne L. E., born 
January 12, 1854, wife of William Stuenkel, 
of Lombard; Maria D. ft., born January 19, 
1859, wife of George C. Johnson, of Chicago; 
Henrietta L. E., born May 24, 1861, wife of 
August Webber, of this township; Elsie L. 
M., Fred H. and William W, at home. Mr. 
Boske has over 300 acres with excellent im- 
provements thereon. Is a member of the 
Lutheran Church. 

WILLIAM BARUTH, general store, 
Itasca; located in this town in the spring of 
1882. He purchased the interests and store 
of L. F. Magers, and keeps a general store, 
dry goods, groceries, boots and shoes, hard- 
ware and notions; he also keeps a saloon and 
sample room adjoining. He was born Au- 
gust 3, 1839, in Amt Otterndorf, in the Prov- 
ince of Hanover, son of William and Bebecca 
Baruth. Mr. Baruth came to America in 1856, 
and lived in New York about two years, work- 
ing for what he could get. In March, 1858, 
he came to Long Grove, in Cook County, 111., 
where he hired out among the farmers. In 
June, ]862, he enlisted in Company C, One 



Hundred and Thirteenth Regiment, Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry, and served until the 
close of the war, and was never absent from 
his command except when home on furlough 
one month, by reason of a wound received at 
Guntown. At the close of the war, he went 
to Chicago and engaged as clerk in the gro- 
cery store of J. H. Haake, remaining in his 
employ until May, 1868, when he purchased 
hia employer's interest and run the store until 
the great fire, in 1871. Two weeks later, he 
set up in business on Milwaukee avenue, near 
Noble, where he remained about ten months; 
then sold out and opened a flour and feed 
store, and continued in that business until 
1880. In May, 1868, he married Mary Hu- 
ell, born in Cook County, 111., daughter of 
John Huell; they have three children — Will- 
iam, Carrie and Emma. He is a member of 
the Masonic fraternity. 

FREDERICK H. BATES, M. D., Ben- 
senville, was born in the village of Elmhurst, 
111., October 8, 1856; he was the son of Gerry 
and Georgia Bates (a sketch of whom will be 
found elsewhere in this work). After receiv- 
ing a liberal education, he commenced the 
study of medicine, in 1875, and on the 26th 
day of February, 1878, he graduated with 
honors at the Rush Medical College of Chi- 
cago. After the death of his father, Gerry 
Bates, which occurred July 29, 1878, he was 
appointed Postmaster at Elmhurst, an office 
which his father had held for thirty years 
previous to his death. He continued to act 
as Postmaster and in the practice of medicine 
at Elmhurst until 1881, when he resigned 
both and entered into a partnership in the 
practice of medicine with Dr. John Zahn, at 
Elgin, 111. In January, 1882, this partner- 
ship was dissolved, and Dr. Bates has since 
been practicing his prof ession at Bensenville, 
in this county, where, owing to his profi- 
ciency as a physician and his extended knowl- 



ADDISON TOWNSHIP. 



229 



edge of the German language, he has a large 
practice. The Doctor has for some time been 
a member in good standing of the Ancient 
Order of Free and Accepted Masons, Harlem 
Lodge, No. 540. 

WILLIAM BUCHHOLZ, farmer, P. O. 
Addison; is a native of Hanover, Germany, 
born February 8, 1826, son of Henry and 
Mary (Knage) Buchholz. Henry Buchholz 
came with his family to Illinois, in Novem- 
ber. 1844, and located in this township, where 
he lived until his death, which occurred July 
12, 1853; his wife died two years later; they 
had five children — Mary, Louisa, Henry, 
William and Fred. Our subject was about 
eighteen years of age when he came to this 
county; when a little over twenty-three years 
of age, he began the business of life on his 
own account. He married, May 4, 1859, So- 
phia Fiene, also a native of Hanover, born in 
September, 1829, daughter of David Fiene. 
By this union, they have been blessed with 
eleven children, six of whom are living — 
August, Fred, Sophia, Louis, Anna, Louisa, 
William (died May 6, 1877, aged seventeen); 
Emma, wife of Henry Deirson, died August 
9, 1877; Bertie died March 11, 1877, aged 
five years; Henry died March 19, 1877, aged 
two years; Matilda, the eldest child, died 
November 11, 1861. After his marriage, Mr. 
Buchholz located on his present place, where 
he has since resided; his son August lives on 
the adjoining farm; he has 253 acres of good 
land and a good farm-house, erected in 1871. 
They are members of the Lutheran Church. 

CHRISTIAN BALCKE, mechanic, Ben- 
senville, is the leading mechanic in his line 
in Addison Township; he is a native of the 
"Fatherland," Province of Hanover, where 
he was born April 3, 1847; his father was 
Christian Baucke, a farmer, who died when 
his son was eighteen years of age. His 
mother's maiden name was Dorathy Fogt. 



Christian came to America in the spring of 
1867; he spent one year in Chicago, and 
came here the following year, and has since 
been engaged at his trade, being both stone 
and brick mason and plasterer, and an excel- 
lent workman withal. He was married, 
March 3, 1872, to Lesetta, daughter of John 
Brettmann, one of the old settlers in the town- 
ship; he has three children — Herman, Julius 
and Malinda. He has, by honest labor and 
attention to his business, obtained a home 
here in Bensenville and valuable property. 

GEOBGE COGSWELL, farmer, P. O. 
Bensenville, was born December 15, 1847, in 
Bensenville, eldest son living of William F. 
Cogswell, a native of Concord, N. H. , who 
came to this township in 1842, and purchased 
a claim on Section 13, of M. L. Dunlap, and 
here the family have since lived. August 26, 
1843, he married Annie A. Franzeu, who was 
born August 30, 1826, in Prussia; her parents 
were Garrett Franzen and Anna Krimpleman, 
who came here in 1843. The father died 
June 23, 1869, having been for twenty years 
a member of the Evangelical Church. Ten 
children were born to him. Of this number, 
William, George, Caroline, Henry, Louis and 
Clara grew up. George has now the posses- 
sion of the homestead, where he grew up. 
In November, 1870, he married Maggie Brust, 
who was born in Ohio, near Chillicothe, 
daughter of Adam and Barbara Brust. He 
located after his marriage in Cook County, 
where he lived seven years. Since that time, 
he has been an occupant of the homestead. 
He has four children, viz., William F., Ar- 
thur, Nellie and Alice. Is a member of the 
Evangelical Church. 

HENRY A. COGSWELL, retired, Bensen- 
ville, was born on the homestead farm in this 
township March 21, 1852; was the fourth son 
and fifth child of William F. and Anna (Fran- 
zen) Cogswell, who came to Du Page County 



230 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



soon after its organization. Henry A. was 
educated at the common schools; afterward, 
attended the commercial school of Bryant & 
Stratton, at Chicago, completing his studies 
at Plainfield College. At the age of seven- 
teen, he engaged in selling farm machinery, 
and canvassed the greater part of the county 
and was a very successful salesman; he subse- 
quently built a large storeroom and engaged in 
the hardware trade, but continued in the ma- 
chine business. He was the first one who 
carried on the business in the town ; he con- 
tinued in the trade for thirteen years. He 
sold out. in the fall of 1881, to H. H. Kort- 
hauer, who has since succeeded him. De- 
cember 2, 1874, he married Matilda Graue, 
who was born in this township, and who has 
borne him two children — Ada M., living, and 
Walter F., who died at the ago of two years. 
A. G. CHESSMAN, farmer and general 
business, Itasca, one of the leading business 
men of Itasca, was born March 4, 1832, in 
Cumberland County, N. J., son of William 
W. and Lydia (Griffith) Chessman, a daugh- 
ter of Abel Griffith, a Revolutionary soldier 
and participated in the war of 1812. At the 
age of seventeen, Abel G. began learning the 
carpenter's trade, and came to Chicago wheD 
twenty years of age. About the year 1858, 
he purchased land in this township, and lo- 
cated on the same, and from that time he has 
been closely allied to the interests of the 
township and Du Page County. He has in 
the meantime been engaged iu building and 
contracting to some extent, and, since the 
existence of Itasca, has been prominently as- 
sociated with it as a business man. He was 
the first Postmaster in Itasca, receiving his 
appointment under Abraham Lincoln, in 
18G3. He was for some time engaged in 
buying and shipping grain. After abandon- 
ing the grain trade, he put up a mill, and is 
now doing effective work for the farmers. In 



1878, he built an addition to his mill, and 
has since been engaged in manufacturing 
cheese boxes, wooden ware, fruit crates, etc. , 
which gives employment to several men. In 
December, 1857, he married Eliza Brooklyn, 
of Ogdensburg, N. Y. , by whom he has eleven 
children — Carrie, William, Annie, Grant, 
Leonard, Philo, Joseph, Walter, Eliza, Abel 
and Robert. His farm of 114 acres is situ- 
ated about one mile and a half from Itasca, 
where he resides, and carries on his business 
in Itasca at the same time. 

DANIEL CLARK (deceased) was born in 
Connecticut August 15, 1820, and came West 
with his father, Daniel Clark, when Chicago 
was a mere town. Daniel, Sr., was for many 
years engaged in the hotel business, in Cook 
County, 111., just outside of what is now the 
limits of the city, and he was widely known 
by the people at that time, far and near, as 
" Uncle Dan." He subsequently located in 
Bloomingdale Townshirj, and there carried 
on the same business up to the time of his 
death. His son who bore his name located 
in this township, on Section 8, in the year 
1851, purchasing his land at 110 per acre. 
March 23, 1852, he married Mary Jane Fos- 
ter, a native of Upper Canada, born April 1, 
1832, daughter of Asher and Hannah (Rose) 
Foster, who came here prior to 1840. Mr. 
Clark engaged actively in farming, and, for 
several years in his early life, ran a threshing 
machine, working excessively hard several 
months each year for many years, and while 
in this business doubtless sowed the seeds of 
consumption, which caused his death, January 
5, 1S77. He was a generous-hearted man, a 
kind husband and indulgent father, and, with- 
al, an excellent neighbor. His wife and three 
sons — James, Burlon and Allen — survive him 
and reside on the homestead. James, who 
was born December 18, 1856, has charge of 
the farm, assisted by his brothers. July 14, 



ADDISON TOWNSHIP. 



231 



1878, he married Maggie Hamilton, bom in 
Glasgow, Scotland, daughter of David and 
Jane (Morrison) Hamilton, to whom were 
born three daughters and one son. James 
Clark has two children — Adelbert and daugh- 
ter (unnamed). 

LOUIS DIERKS, farmer, P. 0. Bensen- 
ville, was born July BO, 1835, in Neustadt 
Amt Rodewald, in the Province of Hanover, 
only son of John Henry and Dorathy (Preus- 
sner) Dierks. In 1841, Louis came to Amer- 
ica with his parents, and, in November of the 
same year, his father located on Section 13. 
There was a log house and but little improve- 
ments. His father is now well up to ninety 
years of age; he resides with his daughter 
Caroline, wife of Henry Miller, in Cook 
County. Louis, being raised on the farm, 
became attached to that life, and decided to 
make it his business. July 4, 1855, he was 
married, in Chicago, to Margaretha Lauing, 
born September 10, 1833, in Amt Hoya, 
Province of Hanover; her parents were De- 
trick and Rebecca Breuning, he born in 1803, 
his wife in 1815, and he came to America in 
1861. She died in the old country in 1855; 
he in 1S65, in this county. Since Mr. 
Dierks' marriage, he has been located on the 
homestead, consisting of 155 acres; he has 
one of the best houses in the township, built 
of brick and furnished in first class style; his 
farm adjoins the town of Bensenville. Twelve 
children have been born to Mr. Dierks, nine 
of whom are living — Sophia, born April 29, 
1856; Ernst, February 11, 1859; Louis, June 
26,1861; Martha. October 20, 1863; William. 
October 19, 1865; Emma, February 10, 1868 
Albert, July 26, 1870; Henry, August 3, 1872 
Ida, April 1, 1S74. Mr. Dierks is a member 
of the Lutheran Church. 

EDWARD EHLERS, farmer and miller, 
P. O. Elmhurst, is the owner and proprietor 
of the wind-mill in the east part of Addison 



Township; he was born in this township 
March 8, 1856, second son of Frederick Eh- 
lers, a native of Hanover, who 'came to this 
State in 1850; he married Maria Meyers and 
subsequently located in Cook County, when' 
he died in 1869; his widow yet lives on the 
homestead. Edward remained at home until 
his marriage, which occurred May 23, 1877, 
with Caroline Korthauer, daughter of Esquire 
Korthauer, of this township. Since his mar- 
riage, he located where he now resides, and 
has been engaged in farming and running 
the Addison Mill. Having a steam engine of 
twenty-five horse-power, he is never compelled 
to cease running his mill, when the wind is 
not sufficient to propel the machinery. He 
has two children — -Mary Christina and Ber- 
tie E. 

FREDERICK FISCHER, farmer. P. O. 
Elmhurst. Henry D., the eldest brother of 
Frederick, emigrated to this country in 1833; 
came first to Chicago, and shortly after, took 
a claim on Section 27, in Addison Township. 
The remainder of the family came in the fall 
of 1836, and have since been identified with 
the interests of Du Page County. Frederick 
was born March 17, 1823, in Hanover. His 
father was Conrad Fischer, who married Lou- 
isa Reinking, and the fruits of this marriage 
were three sons and three daughters — Henry 
D. . Louisa, Frederick. Augustus, Caroline 
and Wilhelmenia; the latter was accidentally 
drowned while coming to this country. Lou- 
isa married Henry Bielfeld, now of Milwau- 
kee; Caroline, wife of Louis Rathje. Con- 
rad Fischer and his family settled where 
George Fisher now lives, in this township, 
where he remained until his death, having 
attained to the age of over fourscore years: 
he was a member of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Church, and was a man Df substantial char- 
acter and highly respected. Frederick has 
1 been a constant resident of this township, and 



232 



BIOGRAPHICAL 



has been successful as a farmer, having 630 
acres of choice land. He has been twice 
married — first, in 1847, to Henrietta Mesen- 
brink, who died in 1880, leaving three chil- 
dren — Louisa, Caroline and Albert. Louisa 
is the wife of Fred Koch, United States Gau- 
ger; Caroline married Fred Buchold, and 
Albert lives in Chicago. His present wife 
■was Mrs. Dorothe Poehlsen, daughter of Lud- 
wig and Charlotte (Bube) Kluto. Mr. Fisher 
moved to his present location in 1845. 

AUGUST FISCHER, farmer and stock- 
raiser, P. O. Elmhurst, was born February 
26, 1826 at Estorf, in the Kingdom of Han- 
over, and is the third son born to Conrad and 
Louisa (Reinking) Fischer. August was but 
ten years of age when his parents located in this 
township. He married, May 27, 1849, Eliza 
Hackrott, who was born December 25, 1828, 
near the city of Hanover. Her parents were 
August and Mary (Krueger) Hackrott, who 
emigrated from the old country and settled 
in this township in 1842, on land adjacent 
to the Fischer estate. August Hackrott 
was born in the summer of 1800; his wife 
Mary on February 27, the same year. To 
them eleven children were born, seven of 
whom lived to be grown, Mrs. Fischer being 
the only one of the family remaining in Du 
Page Cotvnty. Her father died in 1852, her 
mother iu 1849; they were members of the 
Evangelical Church. After Mr. Fischer's 
marriage, he located on the farm he now oc- 
cupies, where he had then but 200 acres of 
land; he has now over 1,500 acres in all, 400 
in Iowa, the remainder in this and the ad- 
joining county. Farming has been his busi- 
ness since he began life for himself ; he keeps 
a dairy of over fifty cows and is a very suc- 
cessful farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Fischer are 
parents of five children, four living — Otto, 
Amelia, Gustave and Charles. Amelia re- 
sides in Elmhurst, wife of Adam S. Glos; 



Otto, a farmer in this township; Gustave and 
Charles, at home. 

GEORGE A. FISCHER, farmer, P. O. 
Addison, was born on the farm he now owns, 
January 30, 1851, the seventh son born to 
Henry Dietrich Fischer, born in 1815 in the 
village of Esdorf, in the Kingdom of Hano- 
ver; he learned the harness -maker's trade, 
and, in 1834, embarked for America. In 
1836, his parents, two brothers and two sis- 
ters came to this section from the old 
country, and determined to engage in farm- 
ing. In 1837, Henry D. married Ann Maria 
Franzen, daughter of Bernhard, one of the 
early settlers of this township. Mr. Fischer 
was a representative man of his time; he 
held the office of Justice of the Peace from 
1854 up to the time of his death, July 1, 
1868. In 1855, he was elected Supervisor, 
and was re-elected annually until 1859, and 
again in 1866. He was a stanch Republican. 
His children were as follows: Hemy D., born 
May 21, 1838; Charles C, March 1, 1840, 
died 1855; Frederick I., July 30, 1842; Au- 
gustus H. , October 1, 1844, was killed at At- 
lanta, Ga. , August 13, 1864; Herman A., 
September 6, 1846; William H. , December 
18, 1848, died June 9, 1865; George A., 
June 30, 1851; Eliza C, June 25, 1853; Will- 
iam H., August 17, 1855; A. Henriette, No- 
vember 27, 1857, died in 1859. George A. 
has succeeded his father on the homestead; 
he received good common-school advantages; 
also attended several terms at Wheaton Col- 
lege. He took charge of the farm in 1876. 
January 30, the same year, he married Mary 
C, daughter of B. H. Franzen and Charlotte 
Buchholz. Mary C. was born May 29, 1856, 
in Prussia; she has one brother, Augustus 
H., and two sisters — Louisa and Caroline. 
Mr. Fischer has 237 acres and the best of 
farm improvements. He has two children 
living — Edgar B. H. and Henry F. A. ; Flora 



ADDISON TOWNSHIP. 



235 



died November 15, 1878, born December 27, 
1876. 

OTTO A. FLSCHER, farmer, P. O. Elm- 
hurst, is the oldest son of August Fisher, one 
of the prominent farmers and early settlers of 
the township. He was born March 16, 1850, 
and has been a resident of the township 
since. His school advantages were such as 
were obtained in the neighborhood at the 
common district school, which he completed 
by attending Dyrenfurth Commercial Col- 
lege, at Chicago; returning home, he contin- 
ued work on the farm. July 16, 1874, he 
wedded Mary Weinrebe, daughter of August 
and Christina (Marges) Weinrebe. After his 
marriage, he located where he now resides, 
and engaged in fanning and stock-raising. 
He has 195 acres in this, and 78 in Cook 
County. Has three children — Alfonso A. , 
Eleanora E. and Alonzo Gr. 

J. H. FRANZEN, farmer, P. O. Bensen- 
ville. was born in October, 1813, in Prussia, 
the eldest son and second child born to Bar- 
ney H. Franzen and Fenne Adelherd Elf ring; 
he was born October 4, 17S2, and married in 
1808; his wife Fenne was born March 18, 
1781. To them were born Anna Catharine, 
John Henry, Annie Gesina, John Barney and 
Gerhard Henry. The family emigrated to 
the United States in 1834; the father died 
January 5, 1844; the mother April 3, 1835. 
July 1, 1838, he married Anne E. Dieckhoft', 
who was born in Hanover September 13, 
1816. and died July 25, 1844, leaving four 
children, but two of whom are living — Mary 
and Sophia. Mary is the wife of Henry 
Kirchhof; Sophia married Henry Fruchli. 
Herman was struck by lightning July 13, 
1859. He was married in October, 1844, to 
Anna Catharine Deters, who was born Sep- 
tember 14, 1824, and by her ten children 
were born, seven living — Barney, born Octo 
ber 2, 1845; Caroline, born August 11, 1847; 



Emma O, born April 6, 1849; Carl August, 
born September 28, 1852; John Henry, born 
February 27, 1855, died March 7, 1880; 
Dorothy, born January 25, 1857; Fred 
W., born March 18, 1861; Herman H.. 
born September 3, 1868. Mr. Franzen 
has thirty-eight grandchildren. For sev- 
eral years after his coming here he was 
engaged in running an oil-mill; aside 
from this, he has given attention to farming. 
He has about 250 acres here and 600 in Min- 
nesota. He has now retired from active life 
and is enjoying the fruits of his labor in 
quiet and contentment. 

HENRY FRANZEN, farmer, P. O. Ben- 
senville, is a son of John Franzen, a native 
of Prussia, who came to Du Page County in 
1837, and was identified with the county un- 
til his death. He first settled on the farm 
now owned by George Eiterman, and followed 
farming. Henry was born June 20, 1836, 
and has given his time and attention to farm- 
ing. July 16, 1858, he was married to Lou- 
isa Eiterman, born in August, 1842, daugh- 
ter of John George Eiterman, who came here 
in 1842. Since his marriage, Mr. Franzen 
has been located on the farm he now owns. 
He has had nine children, seven of whom are 
living — Sophia, the eldest, residing in Elk 
Grove Township, Cook County, wife of Fred 
Everding; Elvena, Matilda, Julius, Emil, 
Lizzie and Hulda; Henry, who died in his 
sixth year, and a babe who died young. Mr. 
Franzen has 106 acres here, upon which are 
nice farm buildings and a residence large 
and commodious. He has also 120 acres lo- 
cated in Cook County. He is a member of 
the Evangelical Church. 

0. A. FRANZEN, lumber and warehouse 
Bensenville, was born in this township Sep- 
tember 28, 1852, second son of John H. 
Franzen; he received a good common-school 
education, and afterward graduated at Bryant 

N 



236 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



& Strattorfs Commercial College at Chicago, 
after which he returned home, where he re- 
mained one summer; then went to Bensen- 
ville and took charge of the warehouse and 
managed the business for his father. Since 
that time, the business has been turned over 
to him, and he has been conducting the same 
upon his own account. He has the control 
of the lumber, grain, coal and feed trade at 
this place, and has a good patronage. March 
14, 1875, he married Mary, daughter of Fred 
Heuer, of this township; three children have 
blessed this union — George, Ida and Rosa. 

DR. JOHN G. FRANKE, physician, Ad- 
dison, was born in Fuerstenthum, Schwartz- 
burg, Rudoestadt, Germany, son of Christian 
Franke and Augusta Regen. Christian came 
to Jefferson County, Penn., in 1854, and en- 
gaged in farming and in the lumber trade. 
The Doctor remained in Germany until 1858, 
attending school; he went to Pennsylvania, 
and there began the study of medicine, under 
a German physician; in 1801, he went to Ann 
Arbor, Mich. ; afterward attended the best 
schools in Cincinnati and received the benefits 
of Rush Medical College and began practice 
in 1865, at Brush Hill, in this county, where 
he continued until the fall of 1876, when he 
removed to Addison and has since been en- 
gaged in the practice of his profession, and 
is doing well; his thorough knowledge of his 
profession is being recognized. In the fall 
of 1866, he married Olive, daughter of David 
Thurston, one of the early settlers in York 
Township. He has four children — Ada, 
Amelia, Freddie and Ella L. Member of 
the Lutheran Church. 

FRED FEDDERCKE, farmer, P. O. Ben- 
senville, was born in Neustadt, in Hanover, 
August 5, 1838, only son of Diedrich and 
Sophia Feddercke. The family came to 
Du Page County in the year 1840, where 
his father purchased seventy- four acres on 



Section 2, at $2.50 per acre, there being 
no improvements on the same. There were 
but two children born to Diedrich and Sophia 
Feddercke — Fred and Sophia; the latter re- 
sides in Cook County, wife of Henry Heuer. 
Fred came to this county four years after his 
father, and has always remained on the farm. 
In his twenty-second year, October 15, he 
married Sophia Oelerking, born in Hanover, 
daughter of John Oelerking. Mr. Feddercke 
has 132 acres of land. Is a member of the 
Lutheran Church. He has seven children— 
Beteni, Sophia, Regina, Martha, Clara, Ber- 
tha and August. 

JOHN GODFREY, farmer, P. O. Itasca, 
was born in County Kerry, Ireland, about 
the year 1817, eldest son of William and 
Elizabeth (McCarty) Godfrey. Mr. Godfrey 
shipped from Liverpool in April, 1851, and 
landed at New York May 20 following; he 
first went down to Cape May, where he worked 
a short time; afterward worked at Altoona, 
Penn., and finally came to Illinois, in No- 
vember, the same year, having nothing but 
his hands to assist him, but he was willing 
and ready to work, and hired out, getting at 
first but $8 per month; afterward, he hired 
out at the rate of $100 per year, and he con- 
tinued on in this way about three years. In 
1854, he purchased sixty-seven and a half 
acres on Section 5, which cost him $10 per 
acre, borrowing the money to pay for it, and 
in due time paid off every dollar. In 1868, 
he added another portion of about sixty-seven 
acres, which cost him $66 per acre, and has 
since been a resident of Addison Township; 
he has also 240 acres in Iowa. In 1853, he 
married Hannah Griffin, a native of County 
Kerry, Ireland, daughter of Thomas Griffin, 
and by her has four children — William, John, 
Mary and Eliza, all at home. 

FRED HEUER, farmer, P. O. Salt Creek, 
was born October 21, 1831, near the city of 



ADDISON TOWN (SHIP. 



237 



Hanover, Germany, second son of a family 
of three children. His father's name was 
Henry Heuer, who married a Miss Kulman, 
who bore him three children — Henry, Fred- 
erick and Lena. The family left the old 
country in 1844, and came to this State and 
located in Cook County; here Henry Heuer, 
the father, died; his son Henry resides there 
still; Lena resides in Chicago, wife of Henry 
Oehlerking; Frederick came here in 1854, 
having purchased land the year previous; 
since his location here has been a constant 
resident. He has 240 atjres of land. Since 
1865, he has been County Commissioner, and 
tilled some minor positions in the township, 
as Trustee and School Director. He was 
first married, in January, 1852, to Christina 
Oehlerking, who died in 1858, leaving two 
children — Emma and Mary. Emma is the 
wife of Herman H. Korthauer, of Bensen- 
ville. Mary married August Franzen, also 
in Bensenville. His second wife was Mena 
Reker, who died in 1860, leaving one 
child — Edie, who resides on the farm ad- 
joining. His present wife was Amelia, sister 
to his last wife; by her he has three children 
— Mena, wife of William Kussack, of Frank- 
lin County, Iowa; George and Amanda, at 
home. 

HENRY HEIDORN, farmer, P. O. Salt 
Creek, born February 10, 1849, in Amt Neu- 
stadt, Province of Hanover; his father, Henry 
Heidorn, born June, 1800, in the same prov- 
ince, married Mary Biermann, who bore him 
seven children, two of whom came to the 
years of maturity. Subject's parents died in 
the old country, and none of the family ever 
came to America but Henry. He was raised 
on the farm at home, and, in the spring of 
1867, emigrated to this country, arriving at 
New York on February 15, and soon after 
came to this State. He spent about three 
years in Cook County at work on a farm, 



where, in the fall of I860, he purchased sixty 
acres of land and kept it until 1870, when he 
came to this county, locating where he now 
resides. His farm is situated on Section 3, 
in this township, and is known as the Lueh- 
ers farm; he has 160 acres, eighty in this 
township and the remainder in Cook County, 
adjoining. November 4, 1870, he married 
Adelheid Luehers, daughter of one of the old 
settlers in this township, now deceased. He 
has four children — Herman, Fred, Ernest and 
Henry. He is a member of the Lutheran 
Church of this township. 

HENRY KORTHAUER, farmer, P. O. 
Bensenville. The great-grandfather of our 
subject was John Henry Korthauer; he mar- 
ried Anne Sophia Stuken. who bore him two 
sons and two daughters — Daniel, Henry, 
Maria and Anna Catharine. In direct line 
comes Daniel, who, in 1785, married Catharine 
Margarita Doebbcken, of Engebostel; she bore 
him three children, but one of the number lived 
to be grown, viz. , John Henry Korthauer, who 
was born July 17, 1789. December 11, 1812, 
he married Catharine Dotendorf, whose par- 
ents were George Ernest Dotendorf and 
Doratha Gravemeier. To John Henry and 
Doratha were born nine children, six of whom 
grew up; tive of the number are yet living, 
of whom Henry, the subject of these lines, is 
one; he was born October 27, 1822, in the 
town of Bisendorf, in the Kingdom of Hano- 
ver; he emigrated to America with his parents 
in the fall of 1840, arriving at New York; 
navigation being closed, they were detained 
there until the spring of the following year, 
when they came to this county, locating on 
the section of land where Henry now resides. 
He had loaned money to the man owning the 
land, who failed to return it as agreed, and 
Mr. Korthauer took the land in lieu of the 
money, and improved it and remained on the 
same until he died, 1876; his wife in 1865, 



239 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



Of the five children living, they are located 
as follows: Louisa resides in Peabody, Ma- 
rion Co., Kan., wife of Frederick Seybold; 
Henrietta is the wife of Fred Graue, of York 
Township, this county, Caroline resides in 
Elinhurst, relict of Diedrich Strucknian; 
George resides in Oregon ; Henry has always 
been a resident of the township since he 
came. His father, being of mechanical turn 
of mind, taught his son Henry the carpenter's 
trade, at which he worked while young; soon 
after coming to his majority, he gavo his at 
tention to agricultural pursuits. He has 
been twice married — first, Novmber 18, 1852, 
to Mary Kirchhoff, who was born in Hanover, 
daughter of Henry and Christina (Ofingsten) 
Kerchhoff; she died May 1, 1874, having 
borne him three children, viz. , Herman, 
Caroline and William. May 28, 1876, he 
married Mrs. Mary Stueve, who was born in 
Hanover October 10, 1827; she was a daugh- 
ter of Henry Hoppensteat and Doratha Bier- 
niann, who came to this country in 1842. 
Mr. Korthauer has 195 acres of land; he for 
several years was giving some attention to 
the nursery business, but farming has been 
his principal interest. He was elected Jus- 
tice of the Peace in 1870, and has since been 
re-elected; was six years Supervisor, and has 
always been a stanch Republican and a mem- 
ber of the Evangelical Church. 

F. L. KRAGE, retired farmer, P. O. Ad- 
dison. Of the old-time settlers living who 
came here in 1837, Mr. Krage is one of the 
few remaining. Frederick Louis Krage was 
born April 28, 1827, near the village of La- 
derholz, in the Kingdom of Hanover. He 
was the only son and eldest child of Freder- 
ick William Krage, who was born March 17, 
1800, in Rodenwaldt, a farmer and carpenter 
by trade; his wife was Anna Mary Doratha 
Stuenkel, born January 4, 1802, daughter of 
Louis Stuenkel. The family came here in 



1837, purchasing a claim on Section 34, of 
Richard Kingston; upon this the father set- 
tled with his family, and remained here until 
his death, August 18, 1872; his wife died the 
year after their arrival here, July 18, 1838. 
The children born to them were Fred L. . 
Louisa, who married Henry Graue; Mary, 
wife of Peter Meville, of Chicago, and Caro- 
line, who was the wife of August Graue, now 
deceased. Fred L. has always remained on 
the homestead, being the only son. He has 
been thrice married — first, July 24, 1851, to 
Wilhelmina Graue, daughter of Fred Graue; 
she died November 20, 1862; but one child 
now living by her — Augusta, wife of Fred 
Stuenkel, now of Arlington Heights. His 
second marriage was, April 24, 1863, to Mary 
Weber, daughter of Henry Weber; she died 
November 10, 1866; by her two children were 
born — Caroline and Mary. Caroline is the 
wife of Otto Feine. April 5, 1867, he mar- 
ried Caroline Graue, daughter of Fred Graue, 
of York Township; by her five children were 
born, viz., Louis, Emily, Fred, Paulina and 
August. Mr. Krage has over 500 acres of 
land; is a successful farmer and a Lutheran. 
HENRY F. KOLZE, farmer, P. O Ben 
senville, was born in Cook County, 111., in 
the Kolze settlement June 6, 1856. He is 
the eldest son and child of Henry and Mary 
(Resto) Kolze, both natives of Hanover, who, 
upon their arrival in this country, located in 
Cook County, where they raised a family — 
two sons and four daughters. Nest in order 
of birth to Henry is Louisa, who is the wife 
of Fred Arbecker, residing in Cook County. 
Elvena resides in Addison Township, wife of 
George Basenburg. Lillie is also a resident 
of this township; she is the wife of William 
Franzen. Amelia resides with her parents 
in Cook County. Henry Fred remained on 
his father's farm in Cook County until his 
marriage, which occurred May 12, 1876, 



ADDISON TOWNSHIP. 



239 



when he married Minnie Steve, who was born 
September 18, 185S, on the farm where she 
now lives, upon which Mr. Kolze settled after 
his marriage. The homestead consists of 
100 acres; he also owns 136 acres in Cook 
County, 111. ; he has four children — Lizzie, 
Lillie, Clara and Tillie. 

FRED E. LESTER, merchant, Postmas- 
ter, farmer and proprietor of the cheese fact- 
ory, P. O. Salt Creek, was born in Clinton, 
N. Y., July 3. 1828, and is the youngest child 
of Edward and Hannah (Newton) Lester. 
Edward Lester, subject's father, was of En- 
glish descent and was born on Long Island; 
he was a farmer of mechanical turn of mind, 
and served during the war of 1812; he came 
to Illinois in the fall of 1835; lived for a 
short time on Section 16, in this township, 
then located permanently on Section 9, where 
he died at the age of seventy-four years; his 
wife died in August, 1846; they had seven 
children, five of whom are living — Lewis, 
died August 7, 1879; Marshall; John, died 
in Minnesota; Julia, residing in Racine, 
Wis., wife of Edgar Waite; Daniel, in 
Wayne Township, this county; Acentha, re- 
siding in Elgin, 111., wife of F. W. Wright, 
and Fred E. Mr. Lester was married, May 
31, 1854, to Julia A. Duncklee, the first child 
born in this township, born in Section 10 
January 8, 1835, daughter of Ebenezer and 
Amy (Higley) Duncklee. Ebenezer Dunck- 
lee was born in Hillsboro, N. H. , March 22, 
1797; he was a member of the Congregation- 
al Church, a Whig and the first Abolitionist 
in this township: he died July 22, 1863, aged 
sixty-six years; his wife, born in Shoreham, 
Tt. , November 22, 1799, was killed by a cy- 
clone blowing down the house, in which there 
were nineteen persons at the time, March 1)!. 
1852. They had seven children — Elizabeth 
A., wife of James A. Hawks, of Nebraska: 
Abbey T., wife of Lorenzo D. Newton, of 



Whiteside County, III.; Alonzo, residing 
near Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Julia A. (Mrs. 
Lester); Emily, married H. P. Goodrich, of 
Chicago, and died in that city; Ellen, mar- 
ried Hiram Airnck, of Chicago, and Alma M. , 
married Reuben Bunnell, of Chicago. Mr. 
and Mrs. Lester have been blessed with eight 
children, four of whom are living — Edward 
\V. , living on the Lester homestead, married, 
in 1880, to Addie L. Stevens, and has one 
child — Carrie C. ; Newton M. , Lottie M. , 
Mabel J.; Hattie. died aged eight years; 
Charles, six years; Alma, eight months, and 
Birdie, eighteen months. Mr. Lester located 
on his present place, which consists of 212 
acres, May 31, 1854, and lived for some time 
in a log cabin on the farm; the place was at 
that time $2,500 in debt. Mr. Lester, when 
eighteen, years old, lost a limb in an accident 
while working on a threshing machine. He 
was elected Postmaster in 1874, and has since 
held that office; opened up his cheese factory 
in 1873, and, in February, 1878. engaged in 
mercantile business. He is a Republican; 
his father, was a stanch Democrat. 

WILLIAM LEESEBERG, farmer, P. O. 
Addison, was born November 13. 1818, in 
Amt Neustadt, Province of Hanover, eldest 
son and third child of the family. His fa- 
ther. George F. , was born in the same lo- 
cality; his wife's maiden name was Mary 
Scheele. William landed in New Orleans in 
1838, and, in March the following year, came 
to St. Louis and thence to this county, in 
August the same year, but soon returned to 
St. Louis, where he worked two years. He 
purchased eighty acres where he now resides, 
paying for it with his own earnings. He has, 
since his location here, been engaged in farm- 
ing. He has served as Justice of the Peace 
several terms, and is now the incumbent of 
that office; he has also held other offices in 
the township and important positions in the 



240 



BIOGRAPHIC A I,: 



college here as an official, and in the church 
he has borne a prominent part. August 23, 
1844. he married Rebecca A. Brettmann, born 
February 1. 1819, in Hanover, daughter of 
John Henry and Anna (Alfken) Brettmann; 
her father was one of the early settlers of the 
township, coming in 1842; he had six chil- 
dren — Mrs. L. being the youngest of the 
number. Mr. Leeseberg has eight children; 
the eldest was Frederick, who died in March, 
1863. in Gallatin, Tenn. , and was a soldier 
in Company I, One Hundred and Fifth Kegi - 
menc. Illinois Volunteer Infantry; Louisa 
married and resides in Elgin, this State; 
Sophia resides at Oak Park, wife of John W. 
Senne; Mary died January 27, 1881, in Chi- 
cago, wife of August Ganske; Emma lives in 
Fond du Lac, AVis., wife of Rudolph Fretz- 
ke; Adolph died, aged eight years; Louis 
and AVilliam, the latter a teacher in St. 
Louis. 

BARNEY H. LANDMEIER, farmer, P. O. 
Bensenville, born April 21, 1838, in Prussia, 
eldest son and second child of Barney and 
Elsebine (Oesterfink) Landmeier, who emigrat- 
ed to this country in 1848, and located on 
Section 2, the land costing $4 per acre, with 
out improvements. This land Barney H. now 
owns, on which he has built a handsome 
brick residence; has rebuilt the barn and has 
the farm in good shape. His fattier is yet 
living; his mother died in November, 1881; 
members of the new church (Lutheran); they 
raised a family of three children — Ellen, the 
eldest, resides at Elk Grove, in Cook County, 
wife of Henry Scheringhausen; Barney H. 
and Henry, the latter residing in Cook Coun- 
ty. Barney has been twice married — first, Oc- 
tober 4, 1861, to Ellen Schoppe, who was born 
in this county, daughter of Barney Schoppe, 
she died October 22. 1864; no children living. 
May 25, 1865, he married Mary Schoppe, sis- 
ter of his first wife, and by her has had eight 



children, six living — Henry, Alvena, Bertie, 
Clara, Leda and Barney. 

HENRY LANDMEIER, farmer, P. 0. 
Bensenville. Henry Landmeier is the eldest 
and only living son of George Landmeier and 
Mary Hilka, both natives of Prussia, where 
Henry was born June 11, 1834, and emigrated 
to this State with his pareuts, who settled in 
Addison Township, in 1838, his father pur- 
chasing a claim consisting of eighty acres. 
The family have since lived here and been 
engaged in agricultural pursuits. There were 
four children born to his parents, but only 
two came to maturity — Henry, our subject, 
and Louisa, who now resides in the State of 
Alabama, wife of Christopher Wolf. Henry 
has always remained upon the farm and as- 
sisted his father, and since his retirement has 
been in possession of the homestead, his par- 
ents residing with him. In July, 1856, he 
married Henrietta Everding, born in Ger- 
many, daughter of Henry Everling; he has 
six children living — Herman, Frederick, Al- 
vena, Louis, Martha and Eddie; two died in 
infancy. He has about 180 acres of land, 
with good buildings thereon, and is a suc- 
j cessful farmer. His parents and his family 
are members of the Evangelical Church. 

HENRY B. MARSHALL, farmer, P. O. 
Salt Creek, was born in Leyden, Cook 
County, September 11, 1855; his father was 
Barney Marshall, who was born in Prussia. 
His mother's maiden name was Annie Law. 
The family emigrated to this country in the 
early part of 1853, coming first to Cook 
County, where subject's father rented land 
several years; afterward, came to this town- 
ship, and, for seven years, rented land on Sec- 
tion 2, where Barney Franzen now lives; sub- 
sequently, he purchased the farm now occu- 
pied by Henry B., which consists of 125 acres. 
The house is new and situated on a pleasing 
eminence, with a grove surrounding it, mak- 



ADDISON TOWNSHIP. 



241 



ing it a desirable and pretty place. There 
were nine children born to Barney and Annie 
Marshall; those living are Barney, Annie, 
wife of Henry Melhap, in Cook County; 
Emily, living in Chicago, wife of August 
Sehack; Mary, wife of Henry Magers, of 
Cook County; Henry B., Louisa and Herman; 
the latter is in Chicago. Henry B. was mar- 
ried, October 18. 1880, to Mary Khle, who 
was born in Cook County, daughter of Henry 
and Louisa (Hoffman) Khle, both of the 
Province of Hanover. Mr. and Mrs. Mar- 
shall have one child — Malinda. Since his 
marriage, Mr. Marshall has had charge of the 
farm. 

LOUIS J. MARCKMANN, saloon, Ben- 
senville, was born September 16, 1833, in 
Ehlanfeldt Mecklenburg Strelitz, son of 
Christian Marckmann and Augusta Radckee: 
he was born April 30, 1794, a shoemaker by 
trade. Louis was left fatherless at the age 
of seven, his father being killed by accident 
August 26, 1841, and, at the age of fourteen, 
he went to learn the tailor's trade, at which 
he worked until twenty-two years of age, when 
he entered the army. In September, 1859, 
he came to Chicago and engaged at his trade; 
then in the grocery business for five years, 
after which he ran an orchestrian hall; he 
then returned to his trade again, which he 
carried on until he came to Bensenville, June, 
1877. He has been thrice married — first 
time, in October, 1859, to Joanna Henrieh: 
she died, leaving one daughter — Augusta 
now living: his second wife was Wilhemina 
Foss. a daughter of J. Henry Foss; she 
died, leaving no issue. His present wife was 
Mrs. Caroline Hafer. daughter of Henry Kline. 

L. F. MAGERS. lumber and grain. Itasca. 
The grain, lumber and coal interests of Itasca 
are ably represented by L. F. Magers, who has 
recently established himself in this line; he 
has erected an elevator, with side-track and 



switch, coal shed, etc., and is ready for busi- 
ness. He is a native of this State, born April 
28, 1855, in Elk Grove, Cook County. He 
is a son of Conrad and Mary (Wischsteadt) 
Magers, both natives of Germany, who came 
to this State about the year 1850 and settled 
in Cook County. The subject of these lines 
left home when ten years of age, and early in 
life learned to care for himself; he had but 
limited education, having to provide for his 
own maintenance while other boys of his age 
were attending school. At the age of seven- 
teen, he began learning the carpenter's trade; 
he subsequently engaged as clerk in a whole- 
sale establishment in Chicago, two years, and 
afterward, carried on a saloon one year. In 
the fall of 1876, he came to Itasca, and start- 
ed a general store, which he run successfully 
nearly six years: then sold out to William 
Baruth, the present proprietor. In the spring 
of 1882, he set about building an elevator. 
and built a switch and side-track, which he has 
completed. From his acquaintance with the 
people, and his known business qualifications, 
he will be a valuable component to the town 
and an assistance to the farmers. November, 
lsTii, he married Emma, daughter of William 
Scharringhousen and Mary Klunder. 

CHARLES MARTIN, blacksmith, Bensen- 
ville, is a native of this township, born July 
5, 1859, the eldest son of Charles Martin, a 
native of Mecklenburg; his mother's maiden 
name was Doratha Colso. The family emi- 
grated to this country about the year 1857; 
his father was a blacksmith by trade, at 
which he worked in this township, where he 
lived until his demise, in September. L866; 
his widow is yet living. The subject of 
these lines left home at the age of seventeen, 
and began learning the trade of his father's 
choice. He worked with Louis Schroeder 
for four years, and, in the fall of 1880, 
came to Bensenville and purchased the shop 



242 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



and good will of William Oelrieh, and setup 
in business for himself, and has since been 
doing a thriving business. October 10, 1880, 
he married Emily Eickhoff. a native of this 
township, daughter of Fred and Charlotte 
(Krage) Eickhoff. He is a member of the 
Lutheran Church. 

FRANK ORT, harness-maker, Bensenville, 
came here and set up in business in October, 
1878, and has since carried on harness-making. 
He was born October 17, 1857, in Proviso, 
Cook Co., 111., and is the youngest of four 
children, two sons and two daughters. His 
father, Paul Ort, was a native of Hesse 
Darmstadt, and a farmer by occupation; 
when he came to Chicago, he had but 25 
cents in money; he, however, finally pur- 
chased land of his own. He met with a 
tragic death, in February, 1877 ; his wife 
survives him. The children born them are 
Eva, wife of George Glock; Sebastian, and 
Agnes, wife of James Pollock, all of Chicago, 
and Frank. Frank remained at home until 
fourteen years of age, when he hired out as 
clerk and worked in stores until he was nine 
teen, when he went to Chicago to learn the 
harness maker's trade, remaining there until 
he completed the same. When he came to 
Bensenville, he purchased Mr. Snyder's in- 
terest, and began in business one door north 
of his present place of business. When he 
got his building finished, all he had left was 
$75. with which to buy stock. However, he 
made a commencement, and, by diligence and 
attention to business, he has built up a fair 
trade, which he hopes to yet enlarge. He 
has a new building in which he lives and has 
a commodious place. December 19, 1880, he 
married Dorathy Franzen, born January 25, 
1857, in this township, daughter of John H. 
Franzen, a well-known resident of the town- 
ship. They have one child — Rosa, born Jan- 
uary 28, 1882. 



HENRY PLAGGE, farmer, P. O. Addi- 
son; is now living on the farm where he was 
born, which event took place January 22, 
1848; his father, William Plagge, was born 
March 7, 1800, in the Kingdom of Hanover, 
and came to this county about the year 1 838, 
and purchased a claim of 160 acres, upon 
which there were only limited improvements 
— a log cabin, etc. — for which he paid $100. 
Here he settled on Section 36, and spent the 
remainder of his days, his death occurring 
July 2, 1870; he was a good man and a mem- 
ber of the Lutheran Church; his widow yet 
survives him and yet resides on the home- 
stead with her son Henry. There were three 
children — Frederick, Henry and Charles. 
Henry has always remained on the farm. 
June, 1871, he married Louisa, daughter of 
William Heuer, of this township; by her he 
has had four children, three of whom are liv- 
ing — Herman, Charles and Anne. William 
died in his fifth year. Mr. Plagge has a 
snug farm, with good improvements thereon. 
He is a member of the Lutheran Church. 

WILLIAM RICHARDSON, farmer. P. O. 
Itasca, is a native of the Green Mountains, 
born May 9, 1821, in Topshaw, Orange Co., 
Vt. , fifth son and eighth child of Thomas 
Richardson, a native of Connecticut of Scotch 
descent, who married Dorathy Templeton, 
who bore him the following children: Thom- 
as, Sarah. Matthew, Dorathy, Moses, Polly, 
Mark, William, Robert, who grew to man 
and womanhood. Subject's parents died in 
Vermont. William, on attaining his ma- 
jority, hired out by the month, working for 
$10 and $12 per month, and continued on in 
this way until the year 1847. About this 
time he married, on May 2, Susan Martin, 
who was born in Bradford, Vt., June 27, 
1827, daughter of Nathaniel and Betsey 
(Sawyer) Bradford, he a native of Vermont, 
she of Canada. After Mr. Richardson's mar- 



ADDISON TOWNSHIP. 



243 



riage, he and wife came West, locating here | 
iD Addison Township, and, with the excep- | 
tion of eight years spent in Wheaton, to edu- . 
cate their children, they have been constant 
residents of the township. He purchased 
240 acres, at $4.50 per acre. He has five 
children living — Mark, Horace, Jeannette, 
William and Maria. Jeannette resides in 
Wayne Township, wife of Allen J. Spitzer; 
William is traveling for a drug house; Maria 
resides in Stanton, Neb., wife of Charles 
Howard; Horace resides in Milton Township, 
and Mark is at home on the farm. Mr. Rich- 
ardson's farm now consists of 193 acres, 
which is situated near Itasca, and i6 well 
adapted to farming and dairying purposes. 
He and wife are members of the M. E. 
Church. 

FREDERICK ROTERMUND, Bensen- 
ville, is one of the substantial citizens and 
among the early arrivals of this township. 
He was born June 18, 1812, in the Kingdom 
of Hanover, and emigrated to this country 
with the Brettmann family in 1842. He lo- 
cated near the place he now owns, on the 
border of Cook County; the land he since 
sold to Esquire Korthauer. After his arrival 
here, he married Wilhemena Schmidt, daugh- 
ter of Henry Schmidt. Ten children were 
the fruits of this marriage — Henry B. and 
Frederick, reside in Cook County; William 
M. , in Bloomingdale; August G. ; Bertha, 
resides at Half Day, wife of Henry Struck- 
man; Louis M. , in Lombard; Herman, at 
home; August G., resides on the home farm; 
he was born July 18, 1851, and raised to 
farming pursuits. In September, 1874, he 
marri ed Louisa,.born i n Cook County, daughter 
of Deitrich Meyer and Dora Dierking. Au- 
gust removed to Bloomingdale Township 
after his marriage, where he purchased land, 
and lived two years, and, on account of his 
father's advanced age and consequent retire- 



ment, he returned to the homestead farm, 
where he now resides and carries on the 
homestead, giving his attention to farming 
and dairying. Has three children — Emania, 
Edie and Laura. 

ELIJAH SMITH, retired physician, Itas- 
ca, the founder of the town, was born May 8, 
1815, in Morristown, N. J.; his father was 
Abner Smith, son of Elijah, who was an offi- 
cer in the Revolutionary war. Abner Smith 
was born June 5, 1786, and, March 9, 1809, 
he married Sarah Sutton, who was born Au- 
gust 7, 1784. To Abner and Sarah Smith 
were born seven children. Elijah died in 
Chicago, in September, 1847. The Doc- 
tor had two sons by his second wife — Allen 
and Frank Amasa; Allen was born in 1852 
and died in 1863; Frank A. is at home with 
his father. November 16, 1875, he was mar- 
ried to Mrs. Jeanette Allen Smith, relict of 
Samuel Smith; she was a sister of his second 
wife. Mrs. Smith's husband died in Austin. 
Texas, January 29, 1873. Our subject at the 
age of nineteen began reading medicine with 
his brother, Dr. John Smith, and afterward 
attended lectures in New York City, at the 
College of Physicians and Surgeons, and 
subsequently received his diploma, June 25, 
1838. He came to this State in May, 1841, 
and settled where he now lives, in June, 
same year; he first bought eighty acres of 
land and began the practice of his profession; 
ho added to his first purchase at different 
times until he owned over 400 acres. He 
has been farming and practicing medicine 
until within a few years past; he has sold off 
the greater portion of his land, having now 
140 acres. He still attends to some calls 
from his friends, but only in urgent cases. 
In 1873, he laid off eighty acres of land and 
platted the town of Itasca, gave the right of 
way to the Chicago & Pacific Railroad, and 
has done much to encourage the building of 



244 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



the town. He cast his first vote for Henry 
Clay. He has been thrice married — first, 
February 10, 1841, to Jane C, daughter of 
Richard Smith, of Herkimer County, N. Y. ; 
she died May 31, 1846, leaving no issue. 
May 23, 1850, he married Mary, daughter of 
Deacon Elijah and Anna (Hotchkins) Allen, 
of Stockbridge, Vt. 

D. SCHMIDT, farmer, P. O. Bensenville. 
Of the substantial families of Addison Town- 
ship, the Schmidt family stand among the 
first. Deitrich Schmidt was born April 9, 
1826, near Stulznau, in Landesbergen, in the 
Kingdom of Hanover, and is the youngest of 
a family of twelve children born to John 
Henry Schmidt, who moved here with his 
family in 1835, arriving in June and pur- 
chasing a claim; he located on it, and about 
him afterward settled his sons. Deitrich was 
first married to Sophia Steager, who was 
born in Hesse Darmstadt; she was killed by 
lightning in 1852; his second wife, Louisa, 
daughter of Yost Turner, who was an early 
settler in the county. Mr. Schmidt has seven 
children, sis sons and one daughter — Au- 
gust, George, Alexander Deitrich, Edwin, 
Herman; his daughter Sophia married Bar- 
ney Franzen. He has several hundred acres 
here and 305 in Iowa. He is a successful 
farmer and substantial citizen of the com- 
munity. 

LOUIS SCHMIDT, farmer, P. O. Ben- 
senville, was born January 15, 1840, on the 
farm he now owns, which his father located 
in 1839; his father was Louis, bora in the 
Kingdom of Hanover in 1808, who came to 
this county in 1835, with his brothers and 
father, all of whom settled in this immediate 
neighborhood, the land being yet in the pos- 
session of the family. The mother of our 
subject was Louisa Fischer, who bore her 
husband three children — Louis, Louisa and 
Caroline; both of the sisters are now de- 



ceased. The father died in 1876, the mother 
in 1854. August 15, 1862, he volunteered in 
Company I, One Hundred and Fifth Regi- 
ment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and 
served until the close of the war, retiring 
from the service with the rank of Sergeant. 
He participated in all the battles of the war 
in which his company was engaged. He 
was with Sherman on his march to the sea, 
and it may be said of Louis Schmidt that as 
a soldier and comrade he knew his duty and 
performed the same with fidelity and zeal. 
In the fall of 1867, he was first married, his 
wife being Hannah Ahrbecker, who died, 
leaving him four children — Ida O, Herman 
A., Emma and Louisa. August 29, 1880, he 
married his present wife, Mrs. Frederica 
Schutte, by whom he has had four children, 
three living — Ida, Emma and Annie. Mrs. 
Schmidt's maiden name was Franzen, daugh- 
ter of Gerhart and Catharina (Hartbeck) 
Franzen. Mr. Schmidt has an excellent farm 
of 213 acres, with stone house and the best of 
barns aud farm implements. In politics, 
Mr. Schmidt has always been a stanch Re- 
publican, and is generally selected by his 
party to represent them in caucuses and con- 
ventions. 

ERNST C. SCHROEDER, blacksmith, 
Itasca; is one of the oldest smiths in Addison 
Township, having been here since 1856; he 
learned his trade with his father in Germany, 
where he was born in April, 1833, and came 
to America in 1854, making Chicago his home 
for two years prior to his coming here. His 
father, Charles Frederick Schroeder, was 
born in Mechlenburg October 24, 1801, and, 
April 25, he married Hannah Maria Steuve. 
Ernest worked at his trade while in Chicago 
the first year for Peter Schutler; the remain- 
der of the time for Pierce, Tucker & Hicks. 
After he came to this township, he worked 
first for Fred Seibold. Afterward, he and 



ADDISON TOWNSHIP. 



245 



liis father started a shop of their own, and 
worked together until I860; he also carried 
on business at Sagone until 1873, aDd since 
then has been a resident of Itasca. He has 
valuable property in Itasca, besides about 130 
acres of land in the township. He does a 
thriving business at his trade, and has given 
much time and spent a deal of money in in- 
venting and perfecting mechanical appli- 
ances; one of them he has brought to comple- 
tion, called the revolving coupling for bob- 
sleds, which is a success, and he has a patent 
therefor. His second machine is a combina- 
tion machine, potato-planter and cultivator. 
January 27, 1863, he married Christina Beck, 
born in January, 1845, near Detroit, Mich., 
daughter of Barney and Margaret (Leser) 
Beck, she a native of France, he of Baden 
Baden, and came to this country about the 
year 1833. Mr. Schroeder has four children 
— Josephine, William, Cecelia and Victor. 
Caroline and Joanna died young. 

LOUIS SCHROEDEK, blacksmith, Ben- 
senville, was born June 28, 1839, in Giewitz, 
Mecklenberg, second son and sixth child born 
to Charles Frederick and Maria (Stueve) 
Schroeder. Louis came to America with his 
parents in 1854, landing in New York Sep- 
tember 6, and coming to Chicago, where they 
remained about one year and a half. In the 
spring of 1856, he came to Du Page County. 
His father was a blacksmith, of whom he 
learned his trade, and worked with him until 
thirty years of age. In 1877, Louis came to 
Bensenville and built the shop he now owns; 
he carries on wagon-making also. July 2, 
1869, he married Doris Biermann, born in 
August, 1852, in Province of Hanover; her 
parents were Rudolph and Margareta (Goel- 
ner) Biermann, who came to Cook County in 
1862; her father died in 1867; mother living. 
They had live children, three now living — 
Mrs. Schroeder, Henry and Lizzie, wife of 



Henry Dresster, of Leyden. Her father was 
a cabinet-maker in the old country, but fol- 
lowed the carpenter's trade after coming 
here Mr. and Mrs. Schroeder have three 
children — Louis, Alexander and Annie. Is 
a member of the Evangelical Church. 

LOUIS STUENKEL, cheese factory, Addi- 
son, was born October 6, 1838, in this town- 
ship, youngest son of Frederick and Doratha 
Stuenkel. Frederick Stuenkel was a native 
of the Kingdom of Hanover; emigrated to 
this locality in the fall of 1836, and pur- 
chased a claim of 240 acres for $300. He 
died August 7, 1850; his wife also died in 
August, four years later; to them were born 
six children, four of whom lived to be grown 
— Henry, Fred, William and Louis. Their 
father was a Lutheran and a Democrat. 
Louis at an early age worked industriously 
at whatever promised the quickest and surest 
returns. In 1861, he began merchandising 
at Addison, and continued in business there 
about eleven years, when he sold out to his 
brother Fred and engaged in the manuf acture 
of butter and cheese at this place. He has 
been twice married — first, at the age of 
twenty-four, to Lena Blacke, a native of this 
township, daughter of Lewis B. and Mena 
(Flagge) Blacke, who came to this township 
in 1843; she died in August, 1871, leaving 
three children — Julius, Ella and Emma. His 
last wife was Mary Botermund, also a native 
of this township, daughter of Henry and 
Doratha (Fiene) Rotermund, who came here 
in 1841. By his last marriage, seven chil- 
dren were born, six living — Adolph, Leopold, 
Caroline, Doratha, Lucy and Melinda. Mr. 
Stuenkel is a Lutheran. 

HENRY FRED STUENKEL, Addison, 
only son of Henry Stuenkel, of this township: 
he was born on the farm he now owns June 
28, 1^47, and has since been a resident of the 
township. He took charge of the farm in 



246 



BIOGRAPHICAL: 



1877. June 12, 1875, he married Louisa 
Turner, who was born in Elk Township, in 
Cook County, daughter of Fred and Louisa 
Turner. Has one child — Louisa, born Octo- 
ber 4, 1880; one child deceased, named Hen- 
ry, aged two years and four months. Has 
150 acres; is a Lutheran. 

JOHN H. SCHOPPE, farmer, P. O. Ben- 
senville, who was born June 28, 1850, on the 
northeast quarter of Section 1, in Addison 
TownshijJ. His father, Barney Schoppe, lo- 
cated there about 1847; he was born October 
15, 1819, in Schale Chreis Techlenberg, 
Prussia, a son of John Schoppe, whose wife's 
family name was Stueve, both of whom are yet 
living, though very old, having outlived 
their son Barney, who came with them 
from the old country; he died January 20, 
1880, his wife January 30, 1878. They had 
six children, three living — Mary, John H. 
and Barney. Mary resides in this township, 
wife of Barney Landmeier, Barney resides 
on farm adjoining the homestead, which is 
located in Cook County. Barney, the father 
of John H., was a member of the^Evangelical 
Church, and soon after coming here identified 
himself with the Republican party, and re- 
mained a supporter of that party until his 
death. John H. now owns the homestead, 
consisting of 160 acres, which cost at the 
time of purchase $10 per acre, and of which 
he took charge in 1876. He was married, 
March 22, 1877, to Amelia Kruger, born 
March 22, 1857, in Cook County, daughter 
of Charles and Wilhelmina (Beisner) Kruger, 
who settled in Du Page County in 1854, he 
a native of Prussia, she of Hesse Darmstadt. 
Mr. Schoppe has three children — Clara, John 
and Lillie. 

BARNEY SCHOPPE, farmer, P. O. Ben 
senville, resides in Leyden Township, Cook 
County, on the line adjoining Du Page 
County. He was born February 28, 1854, on 



the homestead farm, in Addison Township, 
this county, which place is located just across 
the road and adjoining his premises, where 
he was raised to maturity. He is the second 
son of , Barney Schoppe. On December 23, 
J87S, he married Mary Wiemerslage, who 
was born March 15, 1861, in Cook County, 
eldest daughter of Fred and Mary (Midden- 
dish) Wiemerslage, who had but two children 
— Mrs. Schoppe and one son, August. After 
Mr. Schoppe married, he located on the farm 
he now owns, which his father gave him; he 
has 160 acres; he has two children — Rosa 
and Laura. 

AUGUST SCHWERDTFEGER, farmer, 
P. O. Bensenville, was born on the farm he 
now owns, August 15, 1845. Charles 
Schwerdtfeger, August's father, was born in 
the Province of Hanover February 13, 1813, 
and came to America with his parents in 1833, 
settling first in Dearborn County, Ind., where 
they remained until about 1840, then removed 
to this county and settled in Addison Town- 
ship, on the farm now owned by August; lie 
(Charles) was married, in 1835, to Catharine 
Franzen, a native of Prussia, born August 
10, 1810, daughter of Barnard Franzen, and 
from this union seven children were born; he 
died August 7, 1878. August has always 
lived on the farm, which his father settled 
and improved. He was married, April 14, 
1872, to Alvena Krueger, born in Cook 
County, 111., in 1854, who has borne him two 
children — Emil, born January 13, 1873, and 
Martha, born August 4, 1874. Mrs. Schwerdt- 
feger is a daughter of Charles and Wilhel- 
mina (Beisner) Krueger. Mr. Schwerdtfeger 
owns 125 acres of prairie and sixteen of tim- 
ber land. 

WILLIAM STRUCKMEYER, Bensen- 
ville, is the founder of the cheese and butter 
factory of this place; he was born September 
16, 1856, son of Louis Struckmeyer, who was 



ADDISON TOWNSHIP. 



247 



a stone-cutter by trade and died in the land 
of his birth in 1860. William emigrated to 
this State with his mother in 1867, landing at 
Chicago, where they remained a short time 
prior to their coming to this county. He 
worked until nineteen years of age among the 
farmers, and made the best of bis time and op- 
portunities. He then commenced learning 
butter and cheese making in Bloomingdale 
Township, with Fred Stuenkel, remaining 
there until July, 1878, when he came to Ben- 
senville and established the factory he now 
runs, and has since been a valuable and nec- 
essary component to the town, as well as to 
the farmers in this portion of the county. 
July, 1878, he married Carrie, daughter of 
Fred Stuenkel, and by her has two children — 
Jennie and William. 

P. T. TIEDEMANN, merchant, Bensen- 
ville, is one of the thriving and prosperous 
business men of this township; he was born 
on the Island of Fehmarn, District of Schles- 
wig, now a part of Prussia, October 26, 1832, 
and is the fourth son and sixth child of Jacob 
and Anna D. (Haltermann) Tiedemann; he a 
sea captain, who had been a sailor all his life, 
died in New Orleans, La. ; she died in her na- 
tive country. M. Tiedemann emigated to 
America, landed in New Orleans, and thence 
came to Chicago, in 1854, having but $2.50 
in his pocket when he arrived in the latter 
place. He secured a situation as clerk in the 
store of A. Bigelow, of Chicago, with whom 
he remained nine years, and, in 1864, having 
saved considerable money, began business on 



his own account on Milwaukee avenue, Chi- 
cago, where he remained until the fall of 
1877; he then moved to Bensenville, where 
he has since conducted a general store, doing 
a good trade. October 25, 1860, he married 
Anna M. Fortmann, a native of Oldenberg 
District, now part of Prussia, daughter of 
John and Mary (Wielage) Fortmann. Mrs. 
Tiedemann's parents, who came to Chicago 
in 1844, are both deceased, her father dying 
in 1857, her mother in 1855; they had three 
children — Mena, Mrs. Tiedemann and George, 
the former and the latter both of Chicago. 
Mr. and Mrs. Tiedemann are the parents of 
the following children: Jacob T., Thomas H, 
Dora Anna, Emma, Amanda, Frederick, Will- 
iam, Louisa, Minnie. Mr. Tiedemann has a 
brother Thomas in Chicago; William in Utah; 
Christian, Anna and Froderica in New Or- 
leans, La. 

WILLIAM WINKELMAN (deceased) was 
born in Hanover, Germany, in September, 
1824; emigrated to America, bought land in 
this county and settled on it about the year 
1855. He married Mary Bargman, a native 
of Germany, born in 1827, who bore him the 
following children: Henry, residing in Cook 
County, 111.; William, on the homestead; 
Sophia, wife of Lewis Heina, Elgin, 111. ; 
Fred, farmer, in Cook County, 111. ; Barry, 
Herman, Emma, Edie and Martha. Mr. 
Winkelman moved on to his farm in 1860, 
where he resided until his death, which oc- 
curred November 19, 1877. The farm con- 
sists of 160 acres of good land. 






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